The Apocalypse
by adventure-timer225
Summary: Bella Swan survived the zombie outbreak in Forks, Washington. Now she thinks she is the only survivor of the end of the world. But when she meets a small group of strangers that also know the secret to survive, they will have to learn to work together to take down the living dead, and whoever started the apocalypse. Rated T for graphic violence... and maybe some language. oops.
1. 342 Days

**_A/N:_**_ Okay! So, I started this story because I needed to let my violent side out. I, of course, will keep going with A Love That Lasts Forever (ALTLF) duh, but I just needed to get some ideas out of my mind before I wanted to add ninjas in 1918 set to kill Edward and Bella. But now that I mention it… I'm kidding! You really think I'd kill Edward and Bella? I'm offended! _

_I think I told you about my odd mind already. This is just to clear my head._

**_All characters are Stephenie Meyer's doing._**

Chapter 1: 342 Days

342 days.

342 days since I have seen them. 342 days since I watched my father die in front of me, then killed him again. 342 days since it began.

342 days since they ruined my life.

I have trained myself mentally and physically throughout those days. I have seen the infection spread. No, not spread- since it's in us already- but taken over. I have traveled across the country, gathered food and weapons, and killed. I traveled on my own, never meeting another human. I thought I was alone, the only one left.

But let me just start from the beginning. My name is Bella Swan, I am 19 years old, and I am in the middle of an apocalypse. A zombie apocalypse.

I was visiting my father in Forks for the holidays from college when it began. It wasn't a worldwide problem then, but when it started, it hit Washington. Hard. Charlie and I had little time to react, we didn't even know what was happening. He gave me a handgun and searched the town. They were everywhere.

We saw them on the streets, tearing through people who were drowning in their own blood. As long as we kept quiet though, they didn't notice us. But it only lasted until Charlie saw Mom. She was sprawled on the middle of the street. Her car was next to her. She probably tried to run from everything, but they saw her before she could run. Her arms and legs were ripped apart, her face was scarred with bites and blood, and her heart was ripped from its place in her chest.

He kneeled next to her, and cried silently. I wanted to go over there too, with him, but I couldn't move. Because I saw what she looked like. He only saw the woman he loved, but I saw the color drained from her face, and I saw her body shoot up and attack him. I saw his life being eaten off of him, by the only woman he loved. I kept quiet, and so did he, knowing that screams and cries would only bring more attention to us.

He was dying, and I just stood there. And I would never forgive myself for it. I couldn't let them both carry on like lifeless, man-eating, monsters. So I held the gun up to their heads. It was the only way to kill them, figured that out after killing the ones that came for us earlier.

Two shots from the gun later, there were two lifeless bodies at my feet, and tears falling from my face. I had to leave. Before any of them came. I grabbed the keys from Charlie's pocket and ran. The cruiser was fast, unlike my car. It would take me away from this hell faster, and it was protected and equipped with more weapons I hoped.

When I got in the car, I broke down into sobs. I cried as I drove out of the town, and I kept crying until I couldn't cry anymore. I ran out of tears to shed, and I couldn't feel anything but anger and vengeance. I believed that this couldn't have happened on its own; I convinced myself that someone activated the virus in humans. And I knew the infection wasn't spread by a bite, because I have seen unharmed dead bodies rise and attack. I swore to myself that I would find the real monster that started this and kill them myself.

As I was driving, I stopped through empty cities for supplies. You could say I was a scavenger, but I did what I needed to for survival. I was prepared for anything that could have happened to me that led to death. I trained myself for the worst in a blockaded, fenced jail in Arizona.

The weapons I had were plentiful. I had a fire axe, my lucky handgun, a submachine gun I found somewhere in a gas station, and two hunting knives. The back of the cruiser was filled with water, food, gas, and ammunition I picked up everywhere I could. I was prepared.

I made my home in that jail, since it was perfectly blockaded.

And one of the worst case- scenarios happened. The living dead surrounded the gym, and I could see from the window they were breaking down and climbing over the fence. They probably heard my gun being shot. "They're not supposed to be this close." I said to myself. The number of the living dead were growing. I silently cursed under my breath as I gathered my things again. I had to move, quickly.

I ran to the cruiser, which was parked safely in the fenced area. I just grabbed as many supplies I could get in 2 minutes and rammed into the fence to leave. The dead were surrounding everywhere, so I ran over some before I really left. I was in the middle of the desert, and it was the middle of the day. In Arizona. It was freaking hot. I was so used to the cold weather, that a day in the sun had me sun burned but not tanned. Luckily the air still worked in the car.

It was getting dark, and I still in the desert, and I was getting tired. There would be no other living- or dead- creature for miles. _I'll sleep for a few hours, then keep driving, _I told myself. I stopped in a random, remote part of the desert and got out of the car. I filled up the cruiser with gas and grabbed a couple granola bars to eat. I fell asleep in the front seat of the car after I checked around myself for any signs of anything walking around. Luckily the desert was bare, so I could see farther for any moving dots around in the distance.

Welcome to your new life, Bella Swan. Keep on living, to end this tragedy.

**_A/N:_**_ Should I continue? Review, por favor._


	2. Dreams

_**A/N:** Hey dudes and dudettes. I was up until 4 in the morning writing for both of my stories. I'm glad that you like this one. Don't worry though, I stay up really late sometimes, and I wake up early not tired... then in the middle of the day I'm as tired as fu- Anyway... this chapter is kinda short I know, I liked how it ended soooo... A present for you! Read and review please!_

Chapter 2: Dreams

I sat up and opened my eyes. My hand instinctively covered my mouth to keep me from screaming. I had that dream again, the dream about Charlie. My mind kept dwelling on the fact that I couldn't, I didn't save him.

I shook my head, hoping it could help me clear my mind. Nope. I reached over to the back and dug through all of the stuck in the dark until I felt a familiar bottle. I opened it up and took a huge gulp of water. I started the engine.

When the headlights came one of them showed up. It looked the same as everyone else- rotting flesh, bloodthirsty eyes, decaying insides. Only I could tell that this one was attacked by many. One arm was clean off, the legs were pretty much just bones, the face was mauled, and the middle… it was ugly. The numbers were growing faster. There was nothing safer then to keep moving, because where there was one of them, there were always more that followed.

I peered over the one in front of me and saw a few more in the distance. This was going to be an easy escape. I shifted he gears of the cruiser, and crushed the one in front of me. I felt a small bump under the car and smiled. Brainless monsters.

I continued forward, turning slightly toward the others in the close distance. I grabbed my handgun in the glove compartment, and took off the safety lock. As I passed the dead, I reached over to the passenger seat window, opened it, and shot the gun. Six of them, six shots. _My aim has improved_, I congratulated myself. I killed as many as I could anywhere I went, in attempt to slow down the growing rate. But it was only me, and I had little impact on a whole world of them.

I sat back in my seat, and closed the window. I put everything in the car back to where they were.

I didn't know how far I had to go to prevent another surprise like that. I had to keep driving for the rest of the night, or could find another jailhouse. Finding a place to stay would have to be Plan B. As I was driving down the abandoned street in the desert, I spotted something. A big rock, big enough to fit me and some of my stuff for the night, was to the left side of the road. I could sleep there, if I could fall asleep after my dream.

I turned onto the dirt, and began to near the big rock. I parked my car near the rock, got out of the car, and started to circle around the perimeter of the rock to see where I could start climbing. Once I found it, I grabbed a water bottle, some food, and all of my weapons and ammo and put it in the extra backpack I found with more food in it. I settled on top of the rock, using my leather jacket as a blanket. I used the pack as a pillow and lay down. I stared up at the stars, imagining the simple ways- and torturous ways- I could kill the person who started this.

I thought of Charlie, and how long he could've survived if I did something to save him. If I had tears to cry, I would have laid there, crying for hours. I had been having the same dream about him ever since it started. I only slept for a few hours at a time, every day. I couldn't help but feel that he died because of me. He didn't have to die, but I just sat there and watched as he was being devoured, too much in shock to move.

I shut my eyes tight, trying not re-imagine what happened those 342 days ago. I pushed those thoughts away, and went back to strategizing. I could travel eastward, and stop by different states to find a safe place to stay until I head farther. The big cities were way more populated with the living dead, so I would need more weapons. I just had to find as many weapons as I could in the places I stopped.

I shut my eyes, and kept strategizing in my mind. There were so many things to do, but all of them led to my survival, and the monsters' deaths.

There was a shift. Something moved. I couldn't see, but I felt the change in the atmosphere. I sat up, and listened again. The sound came from on the ground, near the rock. It was near my car! _Be as quiet as possible, Bella. Control your anger._ I grabbed my flashlight from my backpack, careful not to make any to or draw attention to myself.

I stopped moving, and waited. There wasn't sound for a few moments. I must have been hearing things, this stupid apocalypse had me in paranoia. Put my head back down. I just needed to calm down. I kept my gun in my right hand and my flashlight in the other, just in case.

Then I heard a loud _thump. _It sounded like something hit metal. Those things hit my car! But what would they want to do with a car with no humans in it? They probably smelled the scent of me, being a human, in there. It didn't matter to me at that point, they were going to destroy my stuff. And at that point, I lost control of my was my chance, I could kill however many were down there, practice for killing the millions more in the world, and get some fun out of it too.

I smirked, quite evilly. This apocalypse really changed my personality. In silence, I kicked my jacket off of me and onto the floor. I turned on the flashlight so I could see and rushed to the edge of the rock where my car was parked. I raised the gun and pointed the flashlight. I almost pulled the trigger, until I saw what they looked like. They were perfectly normal, not a scratch on their faces. I felt my face contort into an expression of confusion and anger.

I kept my gun high. My mind was definitely playing tricks on me. I was the only one left, right? They were probably the ones that started this whole thing, that's why they survived. I couldn't think of anything to do. So I said the only thought I was thinking.

"What the hell?"


	3. The Others

Chapter 3: The Others

"It talks!" I heard a burly man's voice boom. He was very muscular, but his face made him look like he was a 5 year old trapped in a man's body.

A beautiful blonde woman next to him smacked him upside the head. "Ow!" he whined, and started rubbing the back of his head.

"Shut up, Emmett! You are going to attract more of those _things_!" The blonde looked like she was going she was shooting daggers at him with her eyes.

A much smaller girl spoke up. She was very short, and had short black, spiky hair. She reminded me of a pixie. "_She_ is a human girl, Emmett." She turned to look up at me, and she blocked her face from the light in my hand. I set the flashlight to a dimmer bulb, and she smiled. "If you could just put the gun down, maybe we could talk," she told me.

I looked suspiciously at her. "How do I know you aren't going to attack me?"

She put her hands on her hips and had an angry look on her face. "If we were going to kill you, don't you think we would have done it already?" I sighed. She was right. I lowered the gun, and put it back in its holster that was strapped to my leg. I grabbed all of my stuff quickly, and pretty much jumped off of the rock. My boots absorbed most of the impact, so I wasn't hurt.

I looked at them. "May I ask why you are messing with my car?"

"We thought it was abandoned, and we needed supplies. So Emmett tried to break into the car, which didn't work out so well." I eyed the little pixie suspiciously, when you have been in the middle of an apocalypse by yourself, you don't trust things as easily as you did before.

Her expression brightened up suddenly. I stepped back and felt my car behind me. Along with a fist-sized dent near my butt. I sighed heavily, I can't get it fixed now I thought.

"We should introduce ourselves first. My name is Mary Alice Brandon, but everyone just calls me Alice. I am 21, and I as in college for fashion design in Massachusetts before this happened." I nodded, really not knowing how she could be so happy in the end of the world.

"Isabella Swan. for English Literature. From Forks, Washington."

The man named Emmett introduced himself next. "I'm Emmett McCarty. 25 years old and was the owner of a gym in California. This is my girl, Rosalie." He gestured to the blonde woman next to him.

She smiled at him then looked at me, having that familiar suspicious look on her face that I have had on mine. "Rosalie Hale. I'm 23 and was a part time bartender at the bar Emmett always went to, and I was a mechanic."

I didn't notice there was a man standing next to Alice. He was very quiet, and had blonde, buzz-cut, hair. I could tell by how he was dressed that he was in the Army. "Jasper Whitlock Hale. I'm 23, and Rosalie's twin brother." I quickly saw the resemblance; they looked much alike but were not fully identical. He continued, "I was the youngest Major I knew of in the Army." It was good they had a soldier with them, they probably would have died instantly without him.?

"How did you all meet up again, since you obviously know each other?" I asked Jasper.

Rosalie explained my question though, "We were all coming to welcome Jasper home in Los Angeles, then those things came. We thought we were the only ones there." They thought they were the only ones left, but they met the rest of their group, right? So there must have been more survivors.

My attention was averted from Jasper, Rosalie, and Emmett to a blonde man with blue eyes with his arms wrapped around a woman with hazel hair and brown eyes. The woman spoke. "I'm Esme Cullen, and this is my husband, Carlisle. I am 28 and he is almost 30. I used to be a house architect and Carlisle was a doctor." She smiled so I smiled back at her. She seemed so nice. The small group was lucky to have a doctor with them too, in case someone got hurt. If it was a serious injury and there was no doctor, they had to die.

There was another man, far away from the others, facing away from me. From what I could see, his hair was a bronze color and he was very tall. I looked at Alice, "Who's that?" I had a peaked curiosity in all of them now, since they were no threat to me. I could take down Muscle Man and Soldier Boy pretty easily.

Alice looked at the man and rolled her eyes at him. "That's Edward Masen. He's the youngest out of all of us, like 20 or something. He went to join the Army before this happened." She leaned closer to me, and I leaned slightly back. She was whispering now, "I think he has trust issues. Major trust issues. The first time we came across him, he held a knife wherever he went. We didn't go anywhere near him until he finally had the guts to talk to us." I nodded. He wasn't the only one that had trust issues, but at least I didn't shun anyone he just met.

Whatever, it didn't matter to me. "Well, it was nice meeting you all." I began to walk back to my rock when someone's voice stopped me.

"So you're just going to leave us here to die, while you can live your happy life on that rock?" I've never heard that voice, so I was assuming it was that Edward's voice.

I turned around, and he was standing right in front of me. I heard Emmett talk, "Um, Eddie boy, maybe you shouldn't piss off the girl with a gun in her hand." I didn't even notice, but I placed my hand on the holster of my gun when he yelled at me.

"You guys have survived this long haven't you? You expect me to give up everything I have to help you survive? I have my own life to worry about, and you have yours." I was fuming, and was absolutely annoyed. He was so selfish! "I thought you were the one with trust issues." I crossed my arms over my chest to keep my hands from my gun. I had to admit I had some anger issues as well.

"I'm trying to help keep these people alive, while you are the one who has a full load in the back of your car."

Before I could say anything back at him, Esme spoke. "Edward, we have more than enough supplies at the shelter. She needs to survive too." Mr. Trust Issues turned to Esme, and his fists were clenched.

"How are we going to survive the whole trip there in the middle of the desert, without limited food and water? Our truck broke down miles back, remember? The only reason we came here was to find a better place to stay-"

"Well, you picked one hell of a place," I muttered sarcastically. He turned back to me, and then just ignored me.

Alice was getting angrier too. "So what, Edward, you're just going to force her to give us _her_ stuff that _she_ rightfully found? Are you that much of a spoiled brat?" Then there was a full-on argument between all of us. Carlisle, Esme, and Jasper tried to stop it, while Alice and Emmett were defending me from Edward and Rosalie. I suddenly felt bad for bringing them into argument. For Edward, not so much, but for everyone else, yeah. All they did were trying to be nice and I was breaking their little group apart.

I yelled at the top of my lungs for them to shut up, but they kept arguing over my voice. Finally, I grabbed my gun and walked into and open space away from the others. I pointed the gun in the air and the loud shot echoed through the barren desert.

They all stopped short and looked at me. "Everybody shut the hell up, unless you want one of the bullets through your head! The dead that's close to this area could have heard that, so move everything to the trunk of my car and buckle up! If you're taking my stuff, I'm coming with you!" I walked toward them again, and put my gun back.

I heard Emmett mutter, "Pushy, much?" and as I passed by him I punched him in the arm. I turned to look back at him and saw him rubbing his arm in pain. I smirked, now he knows not to mess with me. I moved faster than any of the others did, so I did most of the packing. Everyone was arranged in the car- Emmett was in the back behind the driver's seat and Rosalie was settled on his lap. Jasper sat next to his sister, and Esme was on Carlisle's lap next to him. Alice was in the passenger seat, which left my seat and the middle seat for Edward. As I walked to the driver's seat, Edward was sitting there.

I huffed out a breath. "Excuse you, I'm driving."

He didn't even look at me, "No you're not, I am." Everyone groaned, knowing it would be a start of another argument.

"It's my car, so I drive. Besides, you don't know where I put my keys." He looked at me, and smirked, and held up the keys to the cruiser. I sighed, and before he knew it, the keys were out of his hands and in mine as I put my boot on his arm and started pushing.

He tried to push my foot away, but I twisted my foot slightly to make my foot more stable. "Fine! God, you are pushy." And with that I kicked his rib. Not hard enough to break them, but he would have a bruise in the morning. I plopped onto my seat and started the engine.

I pushed on the gas pedal to rev the engine. "Hold on to your butts," I said, and we sped off. I cracked open a couple windows, since it was hot in the car with all the extra people and the sun was coming up, so it was going to be scorching.

"Where are we headed?" I asked to anyone.  
Alice replied, "Phoenix, just about an hour's drive. But at this speed, probably about 32 minutes." I don't know how she knew, but we got to Phoenix in the exact time she said it would take. "It's just a gift I have," she told me. I merely nodded, and continued into the city with directions Alice told me.

We ended up at a large building made of cement. The windows were blocked off with wooden planks, and the doorways had metal bars keeping them locked and closed. It was a perfect place to stay. I parked the cruiser in a metal shed close to the building. It was safe to get out of the car, since there was nothing around. I opened my door and got out of the car.

"How'd you guys find a place as well protected as this?" As Jasper stepped onto the ground, he pointed to a sign.

"This used to be a mental asylum for the criminally insane. They kept this place well guarded because the psychos always tried to break out. It explains the electric fences around the perimeter and the heavy locked doors." Interesting. I moved to the trunk and opened it up. The first objects I grabbed were my weapons. I put my knives in the strap on my left leg, then I put the submachine gun over my shoulders, and held my axe.

Everyone grabbed at least one box of food or bottles of water. I grabbed everything I could and lagged behind the others. Emmett slowed down to where he was walking with me, and smiled. He grabbed some of the boxes I was carrying, helping me out. Then he smiled even wider, and I got suspicious. "You have a cool axe. Can I touch it?" I stopped walking, just as he reached out his hand.

I smiled innocently, and I was almost running under all of the weight I was carrying. "_My_ babies!" I yelled over my shoulder. As I turned my head to see Emmett's expression, my face paled. He saw my worried expression and moved to turn around and see what I was looking at. Before he saw the creature behind him, I dropped all of the supplied in my hands and reached down my left leg. I grabbed a hunting knife, and in one swift motion, I threw it with enough force to reach where Emmett was standing. The blade sliced threw the air, and barely touched the back of Emmett's head, going straight to the monster's eye socket. The blood sprayed the side of Emmett's face and the body fell to the ground. I ran to him, and bent down to pull my knife out of the lifeless body's head.

I stood back up, and looked at Emmett, and his eyes were wide with shock. But he wasn't looking at the dead body beneath us, but he was looking far away in the distance. Of course, where there was one of them, there were always more.

"Run, Emmett! I'll hold them off as much as I can." I needed a plan, but there was no time to make one. There were more of the living dead than I have ever seen before.

He looked at me like I was insane. "NO way. Are you suicidal? I'm helping you whether you like it or not." I didn't have time to argue with him, because they were getting closer.

I held out my axe towards him, "Then you are going to need this. Aim for the head, Emmett. It's the only way they are truly killed." He nodded and took the axe out of my hand. There were quick footsteps behind me, and I took a quick glance to see Jasper equipped with guns I never even knew existed. They were awesome.

"Trying to have fun without me, guys?"

I let out a short laugh. "You can help if you want, it's your life."

He laughed cockily. "Oh, please. I could take you down in less than five minutes, girlie. I was part of the Army before_ this_ happened."

"We'll discuss this later," I said. Jasper turned to the others behind us.

"Alice! Rose! Get the electric fence running! Quickly!"

"How come they weren't on before?" I asked him.

"It's to save power. All our electricity runs on generators and the generators need gas. So we save as much as we can."

"Where is your annoying friend?" Why isn't he here? If he was going to yell at me about protecting these people, where is he now?

"Edward? He's on the roof, setting up the sniper gun. He's the only one besides me who knows how to put it together." Well, there's one reason not to be mad at him down the drain. "Good," was all I said.

They were getting closer to the shelter, and I got impatient. "Is the fence set up yet?" I yelled to Rosalie and Alice.

"No! It's jammed with something! You guys are going to have to hold them off!" I let out a sigh and began to stalk forward. Emmett and Jasper grabbed both of my arms.

I turned to face them, "I've been by myself since this whole thing started. I think I can handle taking down a few of them." They let go of my arms and I walked forward. I stopped and looked over my shoulder again, "Are you guys going to come with me, or just stand there like sitting ducks?" I heard their footsteps behind me then.

Once I got close enough for an accurate aim, I raised my handgun and took out eight of the creatures. I reloaded quickly, while other gunshots were sounded behind me.

Jasper's voice came through the loud sounds," You like to get straight to the point, don't you, Bella?" I chuckled.

"Well, I am very impatient when I know what's coming. And besides, I didn't want to waste time, missing out on the fun."

"Hey. Where did Emmett go?" I looked around me for the giant man, and my eyes landed on a pile of dead bodies, with Emmett standing on the top. They were all going to him, since he was yelling, "I am the ultimate zombie killer!" at the top of his little mountain. He was having way too much fun with my axe. I ran over to help him, and I raised my gun to shoot the monsters that were in front of me, when two bullets sounded and they whizzed right past me.

I looked at Jasper, who was busy with a few of them on one side of the field. The only other person that had a gun was… he's a dead man. I was filled with rage, and the guns weren't enough to let it out, so I put them away and took out my knives.

Emmett and Jasper saw me, and started yelling. "Bella, what are you doing?" "There are too many of them for your knives!" "You have to protect yourself too you know!"

_(A/N: WARNING! This short paragraph could be pretty graphic… I told you, crazy mind I have.)_

I didn't pay much attention to them. I just attacked. I walked up to one of them and drove a knife into each of its eyes. I pushed the knives farther into his skull, until the dead body was limp on my hands. I kicked the body off of the knives just in time for me to turn around and swing my knife into the next victim's head. I kicked it with enough force to bring the twitching body to the ground, bashing his head with my boot until its head was nothing but pieces of bone and blood. I brought my other knife behind me, and it ended up in between the eyes of another one.

My anger that was directed at Edward turned to be directed at the living dead, then at the person who began it. I was completely oblivious to my surroundings. I just concentrated all of my anger into my attacks on the dead, and that way I killed most of them in one long, swift motion.

All of the creatures were coming towards me now, and slowly my anger decreased. _I had my fill on violence for one day,_ I thought. As I calmed down, I grabbed my submachine gun from my back and swung it over my shoulder. I shot at all of them coming close, while I was slowly backing away. Then it was silent. There were almost one hundred bodies all around me, and the rest were scattered everywhere. Emmett and Jasper were on opposite sides of me, yards away. I fell to my knees, breathing heavily as I looked across the still field. I noticed that the sun was to the west, the middle of the afternoon. We were out here for hours.

Jasper and Emmett walked closer to me, and I just looked to the ground. They helped me up to my feet and they supported my tired body to the fence perimeter. There were dead bodies on the ground around the fence.

I looked to Jasper. "They got the fence working, but none of us really noticed they were calling us until it was over. We let you finish off the rest, since you had all of them and you needed the time to cool down." He paused for a bit. "Remind me that _I_ would most likely die in five minutes in a fight with you someday." I giggled a little, and it sounded so tired.

"Yeah, Bella. Who knew you had that much fury and power in that tiny little body of yours," Emmett said, and hugged me slightly. They were comforting me all the way into the shelter. When we entered, we were hugged and congratulated for making it back alive. We all group-hugged and were scolded by Esme who told us not to pull a stunt like that again. She was a very motherly figure.

Once we broke apart from the giant hug, there were footsteps coming down a staircase. My anger began to fill me again. He was such an idiot. I began to stalk towards Edward, but was stopped by Emmett and Jasper's grasp. I didn't fight out of it, because I knew that if I did I would have lost control. So I screamed at him instead.

"You idiot! You could have gotten me killed out there! You were lucky you weren't near me because I could have killed you right then!" Then I started yelling as many curses and insults as I could think of at the time.

He clenched his fists and shut his eyes, trying to control his anger. "I was trying to help you, Bella. Those two monsters were ganging up on you!" I was shocked and my anger reached new heights.

"Help me! Help me?! You shot those bullets so close to me I _heard_ them pass me! I had that problem under control; I already had the gun up to their heads! You almost killed me and the only sorry excuse you came up with is that you 'tried to help me'?" Jasper raised his hold to my shoulder to calm me.

"Breathe, Bella. You need to calm down." Surprisingly, his words helped. I felt more content and stopped yelling. I took a deep breath, and let just let my fury show through my eyes, and Edward saw it. I saw him take a small step away from me. Ha.

I heard a gasp from my left and turned to Emmett. "Oh my God, Bella. Your arm." I looked at the arm he was holding, and he removed his hand. It was dripping with blood. My blood.

I slid my hand down my arm and felt a sharp pain under my palm. There was a large gash the size of a toy car on my upper arm, and it was bleeding like crazy. I was surprised I didn't pass out or die yet.

I just glared at Edward. I didn't have to say anything to prove my point. I turned away and walked under a ceiling light of the room. I slowly sat to the floor and took off my jacket as Carlisle began to examine my wound.

"It's just a flesh wound," he said after e few minutes, "I'll just have to stitch it up, with my medical kit and it should be fine in a few days." He smiled, and I gave a smile back in gratitude. "Thanks, Carlisle," I muttered. He nodded and walked away to get his supplies.

When he walked away, I looked at the wound for teeth marks. Thankfully, there were none. Being bitten probably just speeds up the infection, because it's already inside us and we would just get more of the virus from them.

I never got a wound this deep through this whole thing. Just large cuts, scrapes, and bruises. I became more coordinated as well, since before I used to trip on my own feet. Maybe it was just instinct from my body, like a 'Zombie Apocalypse Is Here' switch in my brain turned on.

Alice, Rosalie, and Esme came over to me. I looked up and Esme kneeled next to me while the other two still stood in front of me.

"How are you feeling, Bella?" Esme asked me.

I smiled at her and sighed. "Well, there is a sharp pain in my arm, sweat and dirt all over my body, and I'm really tired. But I'm still doing fine." She smiled widely and sat on my side. Rosalie and Alice looked nervous, and excited.

I narrowed my eyes at them. "What's going on?" They glanced at each other then gazed at me. They simultaneously folded their hands and fell to their knees.

"Bella, will you pleeeeeeease teach us how to fight like _that_?" Alice almost whined, and I laughed.

Rosalie spoke next. "Come on, Bella. A girl's got to know how to defend herself," she said matter-of-factly. I thought about it for a moment, and then nodded my head. They both jumped up in excitement and squealed really loudly.

I covered my ears to the best of my ability, then spoke again. "But," they stopped squealing- thankfully- and had sad expressions on their faces, "I need to know if any of you two have _any_ fighting experience _at all_." They brightened up quickly.

"I was a black belt in self defense when I was in high school," Alice said. I nodded then turned to Rosalie.

"I have an annoying brother in the military." Alice, Esme, and I burst into laughter. I guess having a brother would qualify as fighting experience.

I turned to Esme, "Are you going to train with us too?" She shook her head and smiled.

"I'm afraid not, I don't have a violent bone in my body. I've never actually hurt another living thing in my life, except for bugs." I nodded my head, letting her know I understood.

"You could help Carlisle. You know, keep the place intact and help us out if we need it." She looked at me lovingly, and stood up and walked away.

Carlisle came just then with his very large first-aid kit. "I thought it was first-aid, not the whole hospital," I said jokingly.

"Ha, ha. Very funny, but a doctor is always prepared. You were lucky I had this in my car when they came, or you would have bled out." He got everything set up and began to stitch up my wound.

"So, is that the car that broke down when you ran into me?"

He shook his head, "That was Emmett's Jeep. They found Esme and I surrounded by a few of them and killed them off. I brought my kit with me just in case."

After a few moments of silence, Carlisle finished and walked with me to the others. They were already eating when we got over there. Everyone was here, but Edward was nowhere in sight. "Where's the jerk?" I asked.

"Now, now, Bella. No need to be so rude… to the guy that almost killed you," Emmett mock-scolded me. I rolled my eyes.

Alice told me instead. "He's on the roof, eating up there. He just feels a bit guilty for hurting you. And upset you proved him wrong." He was feeling guilty? Good.

I sat on the floor, across from Alice and Rose, and Jasper and Emmett scooted over to sit on both sides of me. "So, Bella," Emmett started, "I hear you're going to train the girls. Can I join too?" I laughed at his exuberance.

"Emmett, you were already having fun with my axe out there. I think you can easily defend yourself." His face fell. Then he gave me the puppy-dog eyes. I can't resist those eyes. "But if you really want to-"

"YES! I really want to!"

I laughed loudly. "Then you can help me. That way you can learn different things you haven't heard of yet."

"Can I help too? I_ am_ the one that was in the Army." I nodded.

"We could use some strategic advice." All of them started squealing like little girls. Carlisle, Esme, and I just laughed.

When Alice was done with her high-pitched, glass-breaking, squealing she spoke up. "Then it's settled! We can start tomorrow morning!"

I nodded. "Good, 'cause I am tired as hell," I turned to Esme, "Where can I sleep for a few hours?"

She stood up and gestured for me to follow her. She led me across the floor to a hall of rooms, I guessed that they were for the cellmates. We stopped at the mouth of the hall and Esme turned to me, "You can pick any room you want, just leave the doors open so you won't get trapped in one. This is the only floor with light from the generators, so don't stray too far from this floor. I don't want you getting hurt in the dark, dear."

I nodded my head, "Thank you, Esme." She smiled and squeezed my right shoulder, then she walked away. I picked a room closest to the mouth of the hall and walked inside. The room was lit up inside, and it was pretty empty. All that was in the room was a simple metal bed, and a toilet. There spiders on the walls and roaches on the floors.

I walked around the room, stomping at the roaches, but not actually killing anything. They all just ran out of the room._ I could kill a hundred zombies at a time, but not a few roaches_, I thought to myself.

I plopped onto the uncomfortable, metal bed and just stared at the ceiling. There was something I felt on my back and when I sat up to see what it was, I looked around the room. There was a worn down pencil that one of the psychopaths used to write some odd stuff on the walls. There were death threats, pictures of dead bodies- the whole deal of craziness.

Then I had a great idea. I have gotten pretty insane since this started, so I was going to write a to-do list. I wrote it on the wall next to my bed:

To-Do List:

Survive

Help the others

Training

Deal with Mr. Issues

Find more supplies

Gather info on the living dead

Find the guy who did this

Kill him

I lay back on the bed and closed my eyes. This was going to take forever.

**_A/N:_**_ Okay, before you get mad at me for the attitudes against Edward and Bella, I will tell you they end up together in the end. That's all I'm going to say. Are we still friends? If we are, please review :)_


	4. Training

Chapter 4: Training

I woke up with the same fright as usual. No surprises there. It was pitch black in the room, so I assumed that everyone was sleeping. I closed my eyes once more I let the restless sleep take over me.

A bright light was shining in my face, and I instinctively covered my eyes with my arms. Then I sat up and swung my feet over the edge of the bed. I sat there for a moment, waking myself up, and just stared at a wall. Then my bladder just needed to empty itself. I groaned, and crawled to the disgusting toilet across the room.

Now that that traumatizing experience was over, I was finally able to stand up and I walked out of the room and down the hallway. As I walked to the middle of the large room, I spotted Emmett, Rosalie, Jasper, and Alice. Right, training.

I smiled at all of them, and they were beaming up at me. "Well, some people are excited."

They all laughed. "Well, excuse us for being eager to learn something new," Alice said.

"Can I at least have breakfast first?"

"Yeah, sure. Just don't take forever," Rosalie told me, while pretty much bouncing in excitement. I grabbed a can of peaches, and opened it with the easy-open tab at the top. I took a sip of the sugary juice and started the lesson.

"Okay, so you guys just need to learn the basics of self defense, since the dead won't put up much of a fight. And you guys need to know how to defend yourself with multiple attackers. Alice and Rose can help me with that, if they want." They both nodded enthusiastically, and I thought their heads were going to fall off.

"I only know how to really use the handgun, so Jasper will help teach all of us about guns. How to shoot, reload, and so on." He nodded very officially, but out of the corner of my eye I saw him fist pump in the air and whisper "Yes!" I chuckled quietly, then made a straight face again.

"I can teach you guys on how to use close-up combat. So like knives, axes, and other sharp or blunt weapons. Emmett could help me if he wants."

He cheered to himself for a while, then realization dawned his face. "Oh wait, I need to give you something!" He ran to the hallway and a few minutes later, came back with my axe. I laughed, and he came back and held it out to me.

After moments of contemplation, I decided to make one of the hardest decisions I ever made. "You know what, Emmett? I think I'll let you keep it. You have obviously had more fun with it than I have." He smiled widely, and wrapped me up in a tight bear hug.

"Um, Emmett? Can't… breathe." He laughed and put me down. I took a deep breath and smiled weakly.

"Thanks, Bella." He slapped my back, and I lunged forward. I turned around and punched him in the arm. It must have hurt, because he was rubbing his arm again.

"Anyway, let's get started shall we?"

I heard chuckles behind me and Jasper say, "Dude, you got beat by a girl," then there were more laughs. I walked into the middle of the wide room and turned to face them.

Alice walked up to where I was standing and I stepped aside to give her room to teach. She taught everyone the basics of everything: standard punches, hooks, uppercuts, kicks, roundhouses, sidekicks. The whole shebang. She was a pretty tough teacher too.

In the middle of the self defense lesson, Emmett groaned. "Why do we have to learn stuff we already know?" Alice walked up to him, and she had a scowl on her face.

"Because in order to know how to do this-" she hit him in a bunch of weak spots, and grabbed his hand and flipped him over her head- "you need to know ALL of the basics." Rosalie helped him up, trying to hide her chuckles, while Jasper was rolling on the floor.

"Dude! You just got beat by _another_ girl!" he yelled between laughs, and then I started to laugh along with him. Emmett just scowled, "I was taught to never hit girls." And with that I doubled over in laughter.

Alice sighed loudly, and immediately everyone calmed down. We continued the basic self defense lesson for another couple of hours, and Alice wouldn't let us take a break until we had everything perfect. Once Alice said we could take a break, everyone groaned. We gathered around the boxes of food for a snack, and sat down on the cold cement floor.

"What time is it?" Rosalie asked.

I looked at my watch and looked back up to her, "It's 10:24." Her eyes widened.

"We have been practicing the same moves for 4 hours?"

"Hey, don't blame me. I wasn't the one teaching this lesson."

"Oh my god, Alice! Why would you make us do the same things for 4 hours?"

Alice raised her eyebrows, "Because practice makes perfect! Don't make me give you the same lesson I gave to Emmett!" That was when Rosalie shut her mouth. I laughed to myself.

After a few minutes, I realized we were the only ones in the room, "Where is everybody else?"

"Carlisle and Esme usually walk around this floor and talk to themselves. I don't know if Eddie boy is still sleeping, or avoiding us," Jasper told me, and I just nodded.

Emmett spoke next, "So, what are we going to do for the rest of the day?"

I thought about it for a while, then looked at Emmett, "Well, by the rate we are learning, I would have to say we would have self defense training for the next couple of days, then we could start on the gun lessons." He groaned and fell back, and sprawled himself out on the floor.

"When is it going to be _my_ turn to teach?" he whined.

I snickered quietly to myself, "Probably about a week." He groaned even louder and I heard it echoing off of the walls in the hallway. Jasper and Alice began to laugh, and Rosalie just rolled her eyes.

We continued our lesson after that, and Carlisle and Esme joined us. "Hello children. How are we doing with the training?" Carlisle asked.

Alice answered, "Oh we're doing just fine, just practicing until they all get it right."

Jasper whispered to him, "We've been practicing the basic punch for an hour." Carlisle chuckled.

"They almost have it," Alice said with a frown on her face.

Emmett walked up to them, "Whoa, hold up. Did you just call us children? If we are children, that makes you an old man." Carlisle's eyes widened.

"I'm only a few years older than you are!"

"Exactly!" Rosalie called from where she was standing. Alice had us stand in a straight line, and Rose was at the end, next to me.

Carlisle and Esme stayed to watch us practice, and Alice finally let us practice with each other.

"I need a volunteer to help me, please." Emmett's hand shot up, and he waved it around like he would in the 3rd grade.

Alice got an evil grin on her face, "Let me clarify. I need a volunteer that won't get beat by me in 30 seconds flat." Everyone's eyes widened, and then burst into laughter when they saw Emmett put his hand down.

Jasper calmed down, and stood up from where he was rolling on the floor. "Step aside, Emmett. Let the real men handle this." Emmett huffed out a breath, and walked to stand next to Rosalie.

She smiled at Jasper, and he smiled widely at her. I could say there was some flirting going on over there, but I just stood there and watched. "Okay, so you said that they can only be killed from the head, right Bella?" I nodded once, and she paused for a moment.

"Obviously, punching will not cause enough damage to kill, and it has many risks of them biting you. So kicks are the most useful here." She paused as she looked over Jasper. He was very tall compared to her, maybe about a foot taller.

She finally looked back to us, "So to cause damage with kicks, you'd have to hit here-" She moved to the side of Jasper, and put her foot at the side of his face- "or here-" she did a cartwheel-kind of flip to face him, and put her foot up to his face. I wasn't even sure she would be able to reach his face.

She put her foot down, and kept her eyes on Jasper as she kept talking to us. "If you just want to move them away from you, all you have to do is push them away or maneuver yourself out of their way." She turned to us. "So you guys are going to have to learn how to deal with multiple attackers."

She looked back at Jasper, "Thank you," and kissed him on the cheek. I raised my eyebrows and turned to Rosalie.

"How long has _that_ been going on?" She snickered at my expression.

"Ever since they met, it was like love at first sight for them. Why, you jealous?" I playfully smacked her arm, gently.

I pretended to have a sad look on my face, "No, I just feel left out now. Why didn't you guys tell me?"

She shrugged, "I guess it wasn't important at the time." Jasper walked back to us just then.

Alice set us up for a "group training exercise" as she called it. All of us had to take turns to stand in the middle of a circle made by the others, and as they closed in we had to find a way out of the circle without any of us getting "bitten"- or in this case, without touching anybody else.

Everyone had their own way of doing this exercise. Alice was very graceful, and she did a bunch of flips and turns. I guess her mind instinctively told her what everyone was going to do, because she maneuvered out of the circle in record time. Rosalie was a little different, she was still graceful but instead she ducked out of the way when everyone closed in on her. I on the other hand, didn't need to do the exercise. Alice and I agreed that, by the way I have lived by myself over the past few months, my body had trained itself to hurt anything threatening. So instead of dodging, I instinctively told myself to kill anything that tried to hurt me. Therefore I couldn't do the training exercise without almost killing anybody.

The boys were almost hopeless. Because they had pretty large, muscular frames, it was harder for them to move out of the way. They could probably just plow over the dead if they wanted to.

"Come on, Bella! Please?" Emmett was getting on my nerves.

I turned to him, "Emmett, I'm not going to hurt anyone just because you want me to show you what I can do." I crossed my arms, and he looked back at me with a suspicious grin.

He looked up at me, and used the full-force puppy-dog eyes. "Oh, god Emmett! Why do you have to do this to me?"

He folded his hands and kneeled in front of me. "The first time I did this you were a goner. Will you pleeeease show me the karate ninja moves you learned?" I tried to look away from him, but it was impossible for me. I sighed heavily, giving up.

He jumped up and cheered, then hugged me briefly. I looked at everyone in the room, "Any volunteers?" Rosalie, Emmett, and Jasper stepped back. Only Alice was beaming at me. "Are you sure Alice?"

She nodded. "But first, remove all weapons please." I took out my knives and handgun and reluctantly set them on the floor. "If anyone touches my babies…" I didn't think I needed to elaborate "you get the point."

We got into our fighting stances, "You're really sure Alice?"

She rolled her eyes, "I was the one spending the whole day teaching _you_, remember?" We were about to begin, until I heard footsteps coming down the hall. Great.

Edward appeared around the corner. "Well, look who finally decided to join us," Rosalie said. He didn't say anything, but he walked up to Alice.

She glared at him and stood straight. "What do you want?" I was surprised from the venom in her voice.

"Do you mind if I join you guys?"

"It's a little too late for that," I muttered and stood straight as well. He looked frustrated and turned to me.

"Look, I'm sorry I almost killed you yesterday, okay? I just felt bad, so I didn't have the courage to face you until now. So can I please just join you guys, in whatever you're doing?" I crossed my arms.

"We were training with Alice the whole day, for your information," Emmett called.

Edward looked upset, "How come I wasn't invited?"

"Because you were too busy being moody on the roof," Rosalie replied.

I looked back at Edward, "You want to fight me? 'Cause that's what Alice was going to do."

He shrugged, "If that's what it takes. It shouldn't be that hard." My mouth fell open. Did he really just say that? Does he just live to piss me off?

Jasper yelled across the room, "Well how wrong you are! She was the one that took down almost all of the living dead out there!" I smirked.

"Whatever you want to do, Mr. Issues," We walked to the middle of the room and got into our fighting stances, "you get hit in the head, you die." He nodded.

Alice skipped over to Jasper, "Are you ready? Go!" she yelled.

Edward came in for the punch, and I easily dodged it. I grabbed his arm, pulled him down and raised my foot to his head. "Dead," I said simply, and let him go. He stumbled out of the way and stood up again.

"No fair," he complained, "you got training from Alice."

I shrugged, "Maybe it wasn't just the training."

He got into his fighting stance again, and I followed. "Again," he said. Once he said that one word, I ran towards him at full speed. He was momentarily shocked, then he refocused and moved out of the way. As planned, I grabbed his leg with my right hand and he fell onto his back. I put the bottom of my boot to his shocked face. "Dead," I repeated smugly.

I heard clapping in the distance, and the occasional "Go Bella!" But the comment that had me laughing was, "I'm not the only one that gets beat by a girl!" I fell to the floor next to Edward, laughing my head off.

He was still in pain, I could tell. He turned to look at me, "Can I try again?"

I calmed down a little bit, "Yeah, sure. It's fun beating you up."

He sat up slowly, "I guess it's your way of revenge."

"Definitely." I stood up, and he got up as well. We returned to our stances, making a smaller space in between us.

"Go," I said. The pattern repeated for hours: he would start the fight, and I would end it. Eventually, Carlisle and Esme left "the children" to training, and they went to eat dinner.

The only people left watching after about an hour was Emmett and Jasper. I heard them betting on how many times I would take down Edward until he gave up. Since there was no money, they were betting food.

I had Edward on the floor again, and he sighed. "I'm probably better at guns than fights."

I raised my eyebrows. "I think you need more training on both."

He looked at me apologetically, "I am truly sorry, Bella. I really didn't mean to hurt you."

I waved it off. "It's fine, I guess. I'm tougher than I look. What happened the past year changed me… a lot." I laughed humorlessly, and then I started thinking about what did happen the past year.

I was taken out of my reverie by someone calling to me. I looked up, and saw Esme waving me to her. I jogged over to her, "You were calling me?"

She nodded, "Did you want to eat, dear?" I looked to the middle of the circle of people, and saw a small arrangement of canned food. Everyone was eating, and eventually Emmett and Jasper came over with Edward. He seemed pretty banged up.

I shook my head, "I'm fine. I've gone longer without a full meal." She looked at me skeptically.

"Are you sure?"

I just nodded. "My arm is pretty sore too, so I think I'll just rest in my room for now." She nodded and gave me a small smile, and I turned around to walk to the hall.

As I walked out, I raised and waved my hand, "Goodnight, everybody."

"Goodnight, Bella," they all said in synchrony.

I arrived in my room, and sat on the bed. I put my hand on my wound and winced. It was more than sore. I looked to the floor and took off my boots to stretch out my feet. I let my mind wander. It thought of many things at one time- it thought of how long the training would go long, how long it would take to find the person who started this, how long it would be until all of us had to find more food.

Well, crap. There were just so many things to consider now. My mind ran wild for the rest of the night.


	5. Guns

Chapter 5: Guns

I rolled my eyes at the sight before me. Did they really need to flirt right now? And it was in the middle of gun training too! I groaned in disgust, as Jasper helped Alice with her handgun and they were cuddling and holding each other like some cheesy love story, only this one was happening right in front of my eyes and it was kind of gross. And really, it just wasn't the time for it. We were in the middle of an apocalypse, and the two of them used up training time for flirtatious cuddles. Emmett and Rosalie too, only they were worse during the training, doing their… things on the other side of the room. Just, gross.

"If you're not going to teach, Jasper, then I will," I said impatiently. He reluctantly let go of Alice's waist and brought his hands to the gun she was holding, and continued teaching her.

I turned to Emmett and Rosalie, "If you're done sucking each other's faces off, maybe we should get back to the matter at hand?" They both laughed at me, and Rosalie continued to help Emmett. I'll make fun of him later.

I sighed and turned to Edward. We all had to choose a partner, and he was the only person left. Hooray… sarcasm intended. He had his own handgun, and was practicing his aim while I watched. I was surprised that Jasper had these guns when it started, and found so many more throughout the year. There were none of the dead around anymore and the building was almost soundproof on the outside, so we used extra ammo to practice.

"Hold it higher, and put both of your hands. You didn't get that far in training yet," I told him from his side. He rolled his eyes and shook his head, but did as I said.

"You happy now?" he asked.

"I'm never happy," I muttered, "Pay attention and shoot the damn can." We used empty food cans as targets, mounted on a stack of other cans so it was the same height of a man. He put all his attention the can and aimed, and with one bang the can fell over to the ground. I began to walk over to the fallen can, and then looked over my shoulder.

"Would you mind putting the gun down when I am over here?" He put the gun to his side, and sighed heavily. I picked up the can from the ground and looked for the bullet hole. I found it, right in the middle of the can and walked back to Edward.

"Good," I muttered as I tossed the can to him to let him find where he shot. When he did, he smiled to himself. "Level up. You can _now _hold the gun with one hand." He nodded, still smiling, and raised the gun again.

I moved to the side, and began to explain, "Just keep it steady- don't move your hand from the target. Don't get distracted." Everybody pretty much continued the pattern of shooting cans, and leveling up or not depending on if they shot the can or not. Edward did well with the handgun, better than with the sniper gun. Emmett was the "excelling student" as Rosalie called him, but Alice would jump every time the loud sound from the gun echoed so she missed most of the time. Jasper kept encouraging her, and she kept trying, until she ran out of her share of extra bullets.

She sulked over it for the rest of the day, along with the sulking for not being able to teach for the rest of training. She was training us for about a week, for almost twelve hours each day trying to perfect our skills to match hers. I was just glad that she let me have fifteen-minute showdowns as revenge with Edward 3 times through the week. That was the best part, for me at least.

Two days of gun training and gross flirting later, Alice wanted to quit the gun training. We all tried to convince her to stay, but she insisted on practicing on her self defense on her own until the close-up combat lessons.

Once she left, I turned back to Jasper. He was in military mode, with a serious face and pacing back and forth. We already learned about the handguns and submachine guns that he had, since I wouldn't let anyone touch mine, so the only gun left that we had was the stupid sniper gun.

"Well since the sniper is not mine, the decision is Edward's if he'll let us use it." Everyone turned to him, and Edward looked hesitant. He sighed heavily after a few moments and nodded, then began to walk up the staircase. We all followed him all the way to the roof into the hot sun of Arizona. Rosalie was standing next to me, and Emmett was next to her. Edward disappeared around a corner behind the staircase and came back with a large briefcase, which I assumed was the gun.

Stupid gun. Almost killed me.

Stupid idiot. Used the gun to almost kill me.

To my surprise, Edward gave the case to Jasper instead of teaching us himself. He was one of the only people who knew how to set it up and use it, right? Once he gave it to Jasper, he walked back to Emmett, Rosalie and I, all of us with surprised faces.

I raised my eyebrows at him. "I thought you were the possessive, moody, not trusting guy," I said, confused.

He shrugged, "I almost killed the living, when I was supposed to kill the dead. I don't think I should handle the gun anymore." I sighed, and turned away from him facing Jasper. He was sitting on the ground, opening the case and turning the case so all of us could see it. He started to explain all of the different pieces to the gun and putting it together as he went. I was giving him my undivided attention, and I almost didn't notice Rosalie trying to get my attention.

"What?" I asked as politely as I could.

"What's up with Edward? I know this is about you, but he was the one with trust issues, am I right?" she whispered to me.

I didn't feel comfortable talking about someone who was well in hearing range, but I wanted someone to talk to. "I don't know, and I really don't care. I guess he just feels guilty, and he can feel guilty as much as he wants. And as for the trust issues," I looked at him, he was looking to the ground not paying much attention to Jasper, "I just trust him a lot less, and I'm pretty sure he doesn't trust me either." I turned to Jasper again, but was still talking to Rosalie about Alice and totally different topics.

"I know this might be a little nosy, but what happened to you, when this whole thing started?" I could tell by her voice she was genuinely curious.

I kept watching Jasper on how he handled the gun, and spoke. "I was visiting my parents in Forks from college. While I was driving to the house, the whole place was empty. People weren't in the streets, cars were everywhere, and the whole place was deserted. It wasn't like that in Seattle where I was, not yet. I got to my parent's house and ran to the door, then my dad opened it and pulled me in while holding a shotgun. I was confused and scared, and I got worried when he handed me his handgun-" I brought my hand to my hip to rest on the gun, and continued- " he said that Mom wasn't home, he didn't know where she was but it was too dangerous to be outside for long. He said there were zombies out there, that they would come if they heard noise, and were only killed from the head. It was only safe in the house, where he boarded up the windows and locked all of the doors, so there was no way they could come in.

"I was stupid then. I wanted to go out there and look for my mother, but he wouldn't let me go alone. I pressured him into it. He took me outside, and we began to search for her. We didn't even walk down two blocks when we saw her, half eaten on the street. He went over there without thinking, and just cried. And I watched.

"I watched him cry over mom. I watched her reach up to his face and pull him closer to her mouth. I watched him die in front of me, and I killed them both. I killed them both and ran. And I didn't even say goodbye." My face was calm, and I told her without any emotion come from my voice.

I turned to Rosalie, and saw her with tears in her eyes. I hugged her, trying to comfort her as she cried in my shoulder. "You don't need to be sad. It's all in the past and brought me to meet you guys." She broke away from my hug, wiped her eyes, and straightened up. She smiled at me, and I smiled back and she hugged me again.

"I was with Emmett at the airport," she began, "waiting for Jasper coming from his special plane or whatever," As she was telling her story, I noticed Emmett and Jasper moved closer to us, "and suddemly there were people screaming, and everyone was running out of the airport. Jasper came out of the plane, but as soon as he did with all of his stuff I grabbed his hand and ran. Emmett was running too, and we saw those things come from the entrance. There were people dead in their own blood, being torn apart before our eyes, before we thought of finding the emergency exit to Emmett's Jeep. And it was scary as shit, Bella. How could you handle it so well?" Emmett and Jasper pulled us both into a group hug, comforting us at the same time.

There was nothing that could make me shed tears anymore, even if it was one of the scariest stories happening in the saddest time in my life. I was still filled with sadness and pain, but mostly anger. "I was never able to handle it well. I cried myself to sleep almost every night before the tears just stopped. I just saw no point in crying, it wouldn't have helped me then and it won't help me now. So, please. Don't cry Rosalie, you need to stay strong, and if you cant we'll help you. We need to stay together now, no matter what." She nodded and the sobs slowly stopped as we were brought closer in the tight hug.

We all stayed like that for a few moments, and I heard footsteps becoming more distant until they faded away completely. Who does he think he is? He gets all moody because of a stupid gun, but he doesn't have the guts to comfort someone who actually needs?

Idiot.

I could feel the rage rise in me, and apparently so could everyone else. "Just let him go, Bella," I heard Jasper's calming voice. How does he do that? He just makes people feel calmer with words.

"Yeah, Bella. As much fun it was watching someone kick his ass, he's just going to be his moody-self." I laughed at Emmett's remark and let the idiot leave.

"Why don't we continue this lesson tomorrow? I'll pack this up and we can take a day off," Jasper said. We all nodded, and waited for him so we could get off the roof.

Once we got to the first floor, where we settled in, everyone else was in a circle around the boxes of food for lunch. We soon joined the circle, and grabbed whatever food there was. I simply took a water bottle and a can of soup.

I stared at the pile of boxes for a moment. "We need to find more soon," I said to everyone. They were all silent for a while, thinking I assumed.

"How?" Esme asked anxiously. I looked to her and noticed that she had a very motherly instinct; she kept glancing at all of us with a worried expression.

I thought about it, "Have you guys been in the city?"

She shook her head. "No, you can't go there. The city is overrun with the dead. We have tried before but they noticed us." I nodded my head slowly as I contemplated the different strategies to get food without being caught.

"Are there any bodies of water or some kind of wildlife around?" I asked anybody.

They all shrugged or shook their heads apologetically. "If there was we would have gone there by now," Carlisle said to me.

I sighed, there was really only one plan left. "The only plans left is that we leave this place altogether or I can sneak into the city undetected and find as much stuff as I can." There were immediate protests for both plans, and I tried to tune them out, or at least listen to one reason at a time. I grabbed my hair and started to push it back into a ponytail and tied it with the hair tie. That was a bad sign.

"Why are you doing that?" I heard Alice ask me.

I closed my eyes and took deep breaths, trying to keep my stress at a safe level. "I'm stressing out. Everyone is talking at once and my anxiety is building up. Then I'm going to get really irritated if everyone doesn't shut the hell up!" I nearly screamed the last sentence. Everyone stopped talking immediately. I have only been this stressed a couple of times before: When I had stage fright, when my dad left for the most dangerous case I have ever heard of, that day when the apocalypse began, and now.

Everyone calmed down from the loud protests and began to speak one at a time, thankfully. "That is really dangerous, Bella. If you go by yourself, you can die easily out there," Esme said sadly. "I agree with my wife. Even if you were quiet, something could still go very wrong," Carlisle agreed with her.

"If it's just me, I can move faster. I can take care of myself out there."

"No way in hell! If you're going I am coming with you." I was surprised at the voice, and then I just got even more annoyed. I turned around and glared at Edward, standing a few feet from me. I slowly walked up to him, seething in frustration

Emmett and Rose were coming up to stop me, but I heard Alice stopped them. "She's not going to hurt him, just let her get it out." I knew she was right. I didn't want to hurt him right now. I just needed to scream in his face until I calmed down.

I jabbed his chest with my forefinger and glared up at him. "You have no right to say that to me! I don't know why, if you're trying to redeem yourself for almost killing me, but just leave me the hell alone. I'm not the one who needs help from you. You even heard me say that I was fine, I got my revenge and I'm okay. But you don't just leave someone who is sobbing and worrying and is scared as hell on the roof, not having a heart to care for her or comfort her, and worry about me because I'm going into the city full of the dead! Rose was the one who needs comforting not me!

"And you know what? You were the one that has trust issues with me, and yet you care enough to worry about me? What is _wrong_ with you? You need to get your shit straight, and start worrying about _everyone_ in this group, and not just me." I glared at his angered, shocked face, and clenched my fists to control my anger. I shut my eyes tightly and took a deep breath, then I felt hands on my shoulders. My eyes flew open, and Edward wasn't even in the room anymore. Alice's hands were holding me from behind and then Jasper joined her, putting his hands on hers. The flirting was still gross, but I had to admit they were cute together. I smiled reassuringly at them, slowly unclenched my fists, and began to walk back to the circle.

I sat on the floor and crossed my legs. "So I'll go to the city alone then?" They all shook their heads in unison. If it wasn't for the situation I would have been laughing at their coordination.

Emmett stood up, "I'm coming. I'm not going to let a bunch of man-eating zombies take the newest, second most awesome member of our group."

I raised my eyebrows, "Second most awesome?"

"Yup, first place is taken already." He pointed his thumb to himself, and walked over to stand behind me. Then Jasper stood up.

"Nope," I told him, he looked confused.

"Why not?"

"Because if there was an attack here, the group would need their second best gunman while the first is gone." He nodded, then scowled when he realized my remark.

"Admit it. If we are going by ranks and if I am second most awesome, I better be first at something." He let out a defeated sigh and sat back down. Alice stood up then, and I sort of panicked and so did Jasper.

"What?! No way in hell you are going out there!" Jasper exclaimed.

Alice just shrugged. "We are going by ranks right? I am the best fighter, and face it, they need me." Jasper sighed, defeated for the second time and knowing he couldn't argue Alice out of this. Alice walked to me as well and stood next to Emmett.

"Now there are three guys who gets beat by girls!" Emmett yelled, and everyone burst into laughter, except for Jasper.

"I'll stay here, I guess. Just to even out the fighters." I smiled at her and nodded, she probably needed some time to relax. I got up from where I sat and turned to Alice and Emmett.

"You guys sure about this?" I asked.

"Hell yeah!" they both pretty much yelled in my face, and I laughed at their enthusiasm.

"Then let's get the gear!" I yelled and pumped my fist in the air. They copied my gesture, and then ran different ways to get what they needed. Oh yeah, this was going to be fun.

**_A/N:_**_ Hello out there! *Clears throat* So, hi. Hope you guys liked this chapter, and obviously next one is going to be there little adventure. To answer a question I was asked, Mr. Jacob Black will be in this story, but I am not really into the whole Jacob/ Bella situation so I gave him a different role. : ) it will be a surprise._

_Beep._


	6. Adventure

Chapter 6: Adventure

Emmett grabbed his axe from the corner of the room and was putting on his shoes. Alice was putting on her combat boots she brought with her. Apparently she was well prepared when the apocalypse began. I already had my knives and handgun, needing only those, and put on my jacket and boots.

Everyone wished us goodbyes and good lucks when we left, and Esme pulled all three of us into a long, group hug. The idiot even came down from his hole to say bye.

"Be safe," he told me. I gave him a bitter look and didn't reply to his little comment. Who does he think he is?

I looked out of a boarded-up window and saw that the dead were surrounding the place. At least they had the electric fence, but we would have to leave sooner than I thought. I walked to the entrance of the building and waited for the others. They finally came over and I pushed the door open. Snarls and the sound of snapping teeth soon rushed through.

"Jasper! When I give you the signal open and close the gate as soon as we get out. You're going to have to fight off the ones who get in," I told Jasper.

"At least I get to have some fun." He ran to the gate and waited there with a gun. Rosalie soon followed him outside and walked to the other side of the gate. I ran to the cruiser and immediately started the engine. Emmett plopped onto the passenger seat soon after, and Alice slid in the back gracefully.

"Everyone buckled?" I asked sarcastically.

"We have no time for safety!" Emmett yelled next to me. I think I've gone deaf in my right ear. I rolled my eyes and smirked at the windshield. I revved the engine and put it in reverse. I immediately turned the steering wheel and the car swerved around to face the gate. I waved my hand out the window and Jasper opened the gate, and before too many of the dead could get in the car was already across the street. Ah, the beauty of the cruiser, able to go 100 mile per hour in a few seconds. I looked back –the gate was already closed- and Jasper and Rosalie were definitely having fun take the dead down.

I looked forward again and saw the city close by. I immediately slowed down.

"What are you doing?" Emmett asked me.

"Well, since the car is a loud and moving object, so if we don't want to get caught I should park outside of the city where none of them could see us and travel into the city by foot. You know, like stealth mode?" I raised my eyebrows.

I saw the comprehension reach his face. "Right, good plan." I drove so slow that I saw a snail pass the car. The car wasn't close enough to the city, but they if they could hear us in the asylum, they could hear us now. Finally, after half an hour of crawling over the street, we were close enough to the outskirts of the city, and luckily close to a department store about a block away.

I stopped the car, and unbuckled, but didn't move yet. Emmett and Alice were moving to get out, but I raised my hand as a sign to wait. "What?" Alice asked from the back.

I looked out the windshield, my window, and then moved across Emmett's lap to the other side, smashing my face to the hot glass. "We have to wait. There might be some dudes over here. Just stay in the car for a couple of minutes. Cities are the worst places to be right now." They sighed, obviously upset. I kept looking around for a while, and when there was no sign of movement I grabbed one of my knives and slowly opened my door.

Still no movement or no sound. I was suddenly suspicious, but let it pass and turned to the others. They were getting out slowly, except for Alice. As soon as the door shut she ran silently to my side and reached in the seat. The trunk popped up and she ran to the back. She dug around the back and when she finally emerged I couldn't see her. Her whole body except for her feet was blocked by a giant duffle bag. She set it to the floor by the car and unzipped along the top and the side. It flew open and I so did my mouth in surprise. The whole duffle bag looked like it was stolen from a high rank military base in WashingtonD.C. There were guns- from handguns, pistols shotguns, maybe even rocket launchers were stored in there- and hatchets and axes and simple throwing knives. It was a zombie apocalypse heaven.

I was still staring, when my mouth finally moved. "Alice, where the hell did you get all this?" Emmett laughed as quietly as a giant man could and stepped towards Alice's bag.

"Dude, she has had this the whole time. She was totally prepared for this to happen. Some of the guns Jasper has aren't even his." My eyes shot up to him, still withholding the stupid face and then gaped at the bag.

"Yep," she verified, "I had a feeling some tragedy was going to happen, so I pulled some strings with people I know to get these and packed boxes of food."

"Why didn't you tell me?" I fell to my knees and reaching over for a knife.

She slapped my hand away, and looked innocently at me. "If I told you, I knew you would go bonkers and try to steal my stuff. and you already have your babies, these are mine."

I raised my eyebrow. "You don't even use the guns."

She sighed and rolled her eyes. "That's why those are for sharing. But everything else- mine." She opened a few pockets and took out two hatchets and the ten throwing knives. And that's when I spotted it.

She had a freaking bow and arrows! "I'll give you my axe for that," I told her, pointing at the metal bow. She burst into giggles and unfastened the bow from its place.

She held it in her tiny hands, "One, you gave that axe to Emmett. Two, you can have it for free, I'm too small and can't even pull the arrow back."

She handed the beautiful bow to me and I took it gingerly, like it was going to fall apart with the lightest touch. As soon as I had it in my hands though, I lifted it and pulled the string back. I felt the power of the bow surging through my arms, and put it back down. I was pulled out of my admiration by Emmett groaning impatiently. I took the quiver (the bag that holds arrows) and slung it over my shoulder. Alice quickly rolled up her duffel bag and put it back in the trunk. I stood up from the floor and looked at Alice and Emmett.

"You ready for this?"

Emmett broke into a goofy smile, "I laugh at you questioning my confidence. We can do this, Bella. I mean, we_ have_ survived with each other for the past year."

I rolled my eyes at him. "But you haven't lived alone," I told him matter-of-factly. We all nodded once and slowly mad our around the block.

The city was a disaster. Cars were crowded in the streets, and some of them were trapped inside. You could hear their snarls and them scratching the windows, but at least they couldn't get out. I led Emmett and Alice around the block, staying as close to the building as we could without making noise. Emmett was this close to breaking a glass window just by leaning on it. Surprisingly, there was nothing on the streets. It was quiet, too quiet.

I kept my guard up, and scanned the area for anything at all. Alice poked my shoulder, and I turned my attention to her. She then pointed up and I noticed we were at the department store. It was a Walmart.

"Perfect," I whispered. I was glad it was a super store so we wouldn't have to search the city for other places.

"Everything is better at Walmart, right?" Emmett asked in a half joking tone.

I let out a quiet laugh. "Oh, yeah. Since now that everything is free." I walked to the front door, noticing all of the windows were boarded up. Yeah, definitely suspicious. The entrance was even locked. Damn it.

Emmett noticed the lock and pulled his axe back. I stopped him in mid-motion, and shook my head. He understood after a short moment. "Right, stealth mode." I nodded and reached into my back pocket. I found the bobby pin and twisted it into the position that I wanted. I kneeled down to the lock and began to unlock it.

"How do you know how to do all this stuff?" Emmett whispered behind me.

I smiled. "My dad was a cop, remember?"

"Oh, right." The lock was beginning to open, and it was getting more difficult.

"How long is this going to take?" Alice asked, sounding impatient and worried at one time.

"Just a few more seconds. Why?" I asked her warily.

She tensed behind me, "We have company." I knew exactly what she meant. I could hear the extra footsteps in the distance.

After a few seconds of a tense aura in the air, the lock clicked and finally opened. I pulled out the lock and pulled the door open. We ran in before they could get us, and held the door. There was the banging on the glass door, and some were even smart and strong enough to try and pull the doors open. Alice ran to a clothes rack and unscrewed one of the poles that held the clothes. She ran back to the door that Emmett and I were holding and shoved the metal bar in between the door handles. I relaxed immediately, moving away from the door, and turned around.

"Okay, so I'll get food, Alice will get extra clothes, and Emmett can get the extra survival stuff. Just meet here when you're done." They nodded and began to spread out through the store. The Walmart was almost fully stocked, with some obvious stuff missing. I pushed my curiosities to the side and started to search for the food area. Alice was getting more clothes and Emmett was looking for the other useful things. I found an abandoned shopping cart in the middle of an aisle and started throwing cans and food that didn't expire too fast. As I walked through the aisles I thought of what could have happened in Walmart. People were most likely here, so maybe before to many of the dead came they packed as much stuff as they could, locked up and left. But I could tell no one came back. I filled the cart with as much of a variety of food as I could, and walked back to the entrance. Alice was buried in clothes near a cash register counter and was organizing them by person.

"Why did you get so many clothes?" I asked her.

She kept organizing the clothes, but ignored my question. "This is your pile over here, and Emmett's is over there." She pointed to the pile closest to her, and then to one of the smallest piles of clothes farthest from her.

"Why do the boys have fewer clothes? Why do they have the most comfortable?" I leaned down to my pile and picked up a dress. "Why did you get a dress?"

She sighed, "They have few clothes because they don't need as much fashion as girls do. They have the most comfortable because they are going to refuse to wear suits at this time. And we got dresses because they can be useful." She finished organizing and folding all the clothes, and stacked the piles on top of each. From behind her she grabbed a big, purple duffel bag and neatly placed all of the clothes inside. Once she was done she got up and swung the heavy-looking bag over her shoulders. Emmett came around the corner with a tote bag full of nonsense.

"What did you get?" I asked, a little apprehensive and worried.

He just smiled widely and lifted the bag. "Well, I got the needed stuff- like shampoos an whatever- and I got some entertainment." He dug through the bag, and pulled out six medium sized boxes.

I threw my arms up, "You got Nintendo 3DS's?! Why?" He doubled over at my expression and gave two boxes to Alice and me.

"Because, what else are we going to waste our time with?" I huffed out a breath and rolled my eyes.

"Fine, we will keep them. And because you are already carrying extra weight-" I turned to Alice and took the duffel from her- "you get to carry more." I shoved the bag into his chest and returned to the cart. "We should go now. They are surrounding the area," I said as I looked out of a boarded up window. They were banging on the glass, making the sound echo through the giant store. I swerved the cart around and saw that the entrance was already crowded with the dead outside. Then the glass cracked.

**_A/N:_**_ I personally love cliffhangers. But hate when people stop the story at the best part. This will not end! Until, well, the story is over…_


	7. Escape

Chapter 7: Escape

The shatter of the first door came first, and I tried to move fast. These aren't the slow, limping zombies you see in movies. Not even close. These ones can run as fast as the average human, they have the same brain capacity and can learn how to do things, and even if they are dead, they are still hungry.

Before I new it I was picked up at the waist and swung over a shoulder. I saw Alice try to push a shelf in front of the door when she was swung over the opposite shoulder of me. Damn, Emmett was strong. I saw the food cart I had being pushed, and he cleverly threw his and Alice's bag of necessities into the bottom of the cart. He had us over his shoulders while running like the end of the world was behind us. Oh wait, it was. I turned my head to Alice while stealthily reaching for the submachine gun she gave me earlier. She nodded and reached for a crossbow I never knew she had. I looked at her, surprised, but she just shrugged. Well damn, she gave me the bow and arrow and hid the crossbow. I think she just knew me too well, in just the few days we have known each other.

"Em! It's going to get a little loud back hear!" I yelled over the hungry snarls of the hundreds of dead surprisingly a great distance behind us.

He sped up his pace. "None of that while your gun is right next to my face! I saw the back door over here somewhere."

I sighed in frustration. "If you're going to keep looking then we'd better at least hold them off longer."

"I'm not leaving you guys here with those things!" I swear he was as protective as a big brother right now.

"Well if you won't do that then we have to attack while you're running with us."

He sighed, "Fine." And in my panic he swung me off of his shoulder and onto the handles of the cart. Alice was sitting next to me, and Emmett's hands were at our sides to keep us from falling. Emmett was stupid, but he was smart. He smiled reassuringly, and I nodded. I placed my arms over his left shoulder and aimed the gun high. I knew I wouldn't miss. I never missed. Alice had her crossbow ready on his right shoulder, and we nodded at each other, ready for our most epic feat so far. We looked back at the dead, Emmett still sprinting. Well, sprinting to me, maybe like a morning jog to him.

And the shooting began.

The bullets were firing as fast as they could from the gun, the bullet casings falling to the ground below us. Alice had great aim with the crossbow, better than the gun. Way better than the gun. Emmett looked annoyed, but how could you blame him? He was the one who had a gun being shot right next to his left ear, and arrows being shot next to the other. Truly a great sacrifice from a warrior of the apocalypse. Tens of hundreds bodies hit the floor before others followed. Explosions of blood and brains splattered the floor from the heads. The aisle became a bloody pool where lifeless bodies drowned. Alice and I made a great shooting team, not one of us missing. And to think of the others joining in the shooting jubilee, we would be unstoppable. Until a certain someone shot another "accidentally".

_God Bella, focus on the task at hand! Survive, don't think about the idiot that almost killed you and annoyed the guts out of you. The past is the past. Focus!_

I did as I told myself to do, and I shot more and more of the dead down to the ground. But they kept coming, Emmett kept running, and Alice and I kept shooting.

"Emmett! Don't slow down! You got this! Go, go, go!" Alice yelled at him. I could tell too, he was getting tired. Exceptional to the guy hauling at least three hundred pounds of human, food, and other stuff. I stopped shooting the bullets and turned to reload. As I turned I saw a rectangular shape in the distance.

I shot my hand up and pointed at it. "There it is! The emergency exit!"

"No shit, Sherlock. That's not why I'm running towards it. I wanted to get some orange juice before we left." I scowled at his remark, but it was taken over by the smile threatening to break out on my face. As he passed the aisle, I saw the orange he was talking about and leaned over to grab it.

I had a hold on the bottle, and another hand had a hold of mine.

And it wasn't Emmett's. Alice was too far. A face emerged from behind the hand, and was pulled with us down the aisle. He was being dragged on the floor, slowly climbing up my hand. I had had enough of this shit. Anger boiled up in me again, my vengeance being a constant reminder for it to come back every time. I grabbed my handgun from its holster on my leg and brought it to touch his forehead. He didn't move away from the cold metal, the thing was too stupid and oblivious to know what was happening. Before I shot I saw a name tag from when he worked at Walmart. Then I thought. This man used to be happy from his smiling face in the picture, even if he worked at a Walmart. He could have had a family to support, or had dreams of his future. At first I couldn't bring myself to kill an innocent man. But he was one of them now. He was cursed to a life with nowhere to go but walk around all alone on the earth. He couldn't end it himself, the eternal suffering and appetite for flesh that wouldn't be there if this continued. I was going to help him. I was going to let him die, just so he could be away from this living hell and on to wherever the hell people go when they die. He could see his family again, see what life could have been, how it should have been. I regained my confidence and the single shot sounded through the store. The man went limp, and his grasp weakened. He was trampled over by the dead, and Emmett ran as fast as he could with his tiring legs.

"You really wanted that orange juice, huh Bella?" he joked.

I smiled a small smile. "It was all for you Emmett. We must celebrate with this orange juice!" He laughed, and kept running. He had a mischievous smile on his face the whole time. Suspicious…

We made it to the door, and Emmett shoved the cart past it. The door slammed loudly and it jammed as the lock fell to place, and trapped the dead inside. I had parked the car in just the right place, apparently, because it was right in front of us. Emmett picked Alice and me up, opened the driver's door, and shoved us in. He was back at the cart and I popped the trunk, and he immediately threw the bags and food into it. I started the engine when he closed the trunk, and drove quickly when he plopped into the backseat. And he lay there, breathing heavily and loudly.

"I haven't gotten that much exercise in months," he said quietly.

Alice giggled, "Well, you made up that exercise today, didn't you?"

He scowled at her. "Well, it's not my fault you two weigh as much as I do combined."

We turned to him and raised our eyebrows at the same time. "Emmett we are the two smallest people in the group. Maybe you have lost some of that muscle over the year huh? I mean, if you can't handle us, you probably can't handle anything else," Alice threatened. I turned back to the road, not wanting to crash, but I saw his eyes widen and a smug look come to his face.

"Dude, I was carrying you and Bella, plus cart of food, the supplies I got, and your unreasonable amount of clothes." He crossed his arms, "So it was more weight than you can handle. More than both of you could handle. And I had to freaking run too!"

I knew Alice stopped listening to his rant when he mentioned clothes. Her whole face turned red. Uh-oh. "They are not an unreasonable amount of clothes! It is a necessity to survive! You need them to feel and look beautiful and handsome! Don't hate on the clothes, or you're not getting your share!" And I had to sit there with Emmett, listening to Alice's 100 reasons why clothes and shopping were important.

After 15 minutes of Alice's continuous explanation, we made it to the gate. Jasper was waiting outside and when he saw he opened the gate quickly. There were about two to three dozen of the dead left outside, but they were being shocked by the electric fence. I drove inside and parked next to the building. Emmett and I got out as fast as we could, but Alice kept going on and on and on…

"You know, Alice I think he gets it. I'm pretty sure his brain got the message: clothes are important and don't mess with Alice on that subject." She stopped talking with her high pitched voice, and smiled smugly. She walked to Jasper then, and he helped her get the weapon bag. I'm pretty sure he got the message that Alice was talking about clothes, and got her away from Emmett and me. We sighed simultaneously when she and Jasper left and I began to take the duffel and tote bags out of the trunk. Emmett got random cans of food and we began to walk outside. Esme was waiting at the door, and when she saw me she hugged me tightly.

"I'm so glad you made it safe. I was beginning to get worried." She hugged me for a while longer and then pulled away.

"Sorry we were out for a while. Some things just got us caught up." I didn't want to tell her what happened, so I left it at that. She smiled, and then hugged Emmett who came in after me. Rosalie hugged me next and smiled, she ran to Emmett and jumped into his arms, which had dropped the cans of food to the floor. I'll get them later. I dropped the bags to the center of the room and walked back to the car. And there he was, being the idiot he was and trying to take as many packs of food his arms would let him carry. I rolled my eyes and stomped up to him. I grabbed half of the packs he was holding and simply walked back into the building. He followed behind me, not saying a word. He was silent the whole time he followed me around getting the food from the car, while everyone else did their own thing with their couples.

We were finally done. I didn't realize how much food I got until now, which was at least another 6 months. I sat on the floor next to all the stuff and Edward left me alone to my thinking. I began to unpack the clothes duffel bag and saw that the clothes were still neatly packed, nothing out of place. I wonder how she knew all of our sizes. Well, she was in college for this stuff. The smallest size for clothes were obviously Alice's, so I put them in a pile farthest away from me. The next smallest were mine, so I put the pile behind me. Rosalie and Esme were the same size and I put them next to Alice's pile. Even if Alice was crazy about the nicest clothes, she got outfits that were as close to fashion to comfort as possible. And I'm so glad she got me jeans with the exception of a dress, while the other girls' pile was shorts or dresses of some sort. I wasn't going any where near the boys' clothes. Yeah I know, I'm 19 I should be mature about this stuff. The truth is, I'm not mature at all. Yeah sure, I could stay alive in a zombie apocalypse and that should have made me the mature adult I should be. But in reality, I was always the seven year old kid with the wild imagination. I had no time to grow up. Not even now. I didn't want touch the boy stuff, so I kind of just kicked them to the side and let everyone know to get their stuff.

Everyone grouped around the middle of the room. "Okay, girls over here, and guys over there. Get your clothes." I pointed to the piles and Alice automatically ran to hers and picked it up to her chest.

"How come ours aren't organized nicely?" Emmett joked.

I crossed my arms. "Because you know how to get your own stuff. You need to work out your brains." He laughed at my face.

"Aww, does Bella not want to get cooties from the boy clothes?" Emmett said in a baby voice, and Jasper snickered.

I scowled. "Don't push me, boy," I warned and picked up my stuff. "Do the showers work?"

"They should," Jasper told me. I nodded and started digging through the tote bag to find the shampoo and body wash Emmett should have gotten. I found them, a whole lot of them, along with an intriguing plastic bag. And my curiosity got the best of me. I peeked in the bag, and was shocked.

"Emmett! Why did you get four 6-packs of beer?" I turned around to face him, and he looked like an innocent 5 year old.

"Celebration!" he yelled, fist pumping the air. I turned back to the bag, and dropped to the floor.

"And 'feminine hygiene' products?" Alice, Rose, and Esme joined me on the floor, laughing our heads off. There were four boxes of tampons and pads in the bag staring at us.

"Well, don't you guys need that stuff or something?" His voice was truly curious, which only made me laugh harder. And the funniest part is, all the boys except for Carlisle had the same curious look.

"Trust me when I say this, you don't want to know," Carlisle told them, and they all nodded in confusion. Oh crap, this was just too funny. We finally calmed down, and I kept looking through the bags. There was everything we apparently needed in the hygiene department, so good job to Emmett. I grabbed my clothes again, and Jasper told me the way to the showers. I wanted my privacy, so no one was allowed in the shower room in my presence. I walked to my room and dropped the clothes there, while I grabbed the pajamas Alice got- she got complete outfits for everyone, including pajamas, underwear, and bras and whatnot- and made my way to the shower. After I made sure I was alone, and no stupid dead creatures around, I stripped off my filthy clothes and ran the warm water. Finally, I felt clean again. No dried blood, no sand and dirt, just cleanliness. The water seemed to wash my stress away and down the drain. I spent at least half an hour just standing in the water after I washed up and made myself clean again, and when I felt calm again I turned it off. Emmett had gotten towels, one for each, and I patted myself dry. I wrapped my head of messed up hair of the towel and changed into the matching set of pajama shorts and tank top. Alice had everything someone needed in clothes, gold star to her as well.

I walked back to the center of the floor where everyone was sitting around, checking out all of the supplies. "I'm done. Someone else can go." Esme stood up and grabbed her clothes, smiling the whole way. Carlisle smiled and not-so-subtly stood up and walked away after his wife. Well, at least they get to be alone together. Everyone else was crowded around the stuff, and as I got closer they were also enjoying the beer that Emmett had taken with him. Great. One box was box still had six left in it, so as I sat down I grabbed one.

"Hey, what do you think your doing?" Alice asked me while sipping on her bottle.

"If you guys are celebrating our wondrous feat, why can't I?" I asked her as I popped the can open.

She frowned. "Because you are only 19 and it's considered underage drinking under 21 for a reason."

I raised my eyebrows. "What, are the police going to come crashing through the door to arrest me at the end of the world?" I asked sarcastically. "And why does he get one, but not me?" I pointed to Edward across from me as he was holding the beer can.

Alice huffed. "Because he is only one year younger, and he is too uptight to drink too much. But you on the other hand, can be very reckless with alcohol in your system. I can feel it." I rolled my eyes. Even if she was never wrong, it was silly to think of me reckless at the time of the end. I kept myself alive for almost a year, I had no time to be reckless and stupid. Well, maybe for tonight.

I ignored her argument, because I knew she knew she lost. I brought the metal can to my lips and chugged down the whole can. When it was empty, I dropped the can to the floor and was already feeling a little funny. I drank two more, and my head wasn't clear. All I saw were the surprised faces of five people. "What's got your panties in a twist?" I slurred out. Some people shook their heads, and another three just stared at me. "This is good stuff," I said after my fifth or sixth. Then the can disappeared from my hand. "Where the hell did my beer go?" I asked angrily. All of a sudden I was giggling uncontrollably at nothing. There were a few laughs hear and there that sounded a lot like a drunk Emmett, Rose, and Jasper would. Alice was trying to calm them down a little, but wasn't really helping with her drunken ass too. Then it was a big giggling fit between all of us. I forgot about the beer in my hand for a while, until warm hands came to my waist and lifted me up off the floor.

"Stranger danger! Stranger danger!" I slapped and kicked the air, not knowing what to hit.

"Bella, stop. You're drunk after six beers," a man's voice said. I recognized it as Edward's after moments of thinking.

I laughed while I was lifted into the air. "You're just jealous that… you di-int get any beer! Cuz I drank them all!" I started laughing again. And heard laughs next to me.

"Shut up, stupid idiot. And put my ass do-wn," I half slurred, half yelled. At least we knew that I was an emotional drunk now, or at least a bipolar drunk. "Where we goin'? How'd I get here?" I looked around me, and found we were in a hallway, and it was all lit up. I squirmed, and something hard hit me on the back. Then I started giggling again. I got up and swayed a little bit, but someone steadied me and led me forward. I walked along a line on the floor, and kept stumbling over and giggling, until we turned into a vaguely familiar room. Edward was still holding my arms, and I spotted the bed after laughing at the metal toilet in the corner.

I pushed his hands off me. "Moof," I mumbled. I felt myself sway a little and land on the cold metal of the bed and my head the lumpy pillow. I think I blacked out after that because I woke up from a more than vivid nightmare.

I heard a high pitched, screeching sound and shot up from the odd position on the bed. My mouth was open, and when I shut it the screeching was muted. I screamed from the nightmare. That hasn't happened since the first few weeks of the nightmares. The alcohol must have done something to my imagination.

"Bella?" My head whipped to the door, still in shock. I was breathing heavily and my heart racing.

I needed to calm down, but part of me still felt lost in dream land. Yupp, definitely the alcohol. "Daddy?" I new it was impossible, but I couldn't get out of my drunken state at the moment. And I couldn't get over the guilt or regret anymore. Ugh, the sad effects of getting drunk and being in an apocalypse.

"No, Bella." Footsteps came closer to the bed. I pondered the voice and that it wasn't the person I wanted to see or hear right now.

I leaned my forehead on the cement wall and mumbled unintelligibly even to myself. "Go away, Idiot," I said aloud. There was another person's weight on the edge of the bed and I peeked up to see Edward's stupid face. "What do you want?" I was surprised I could even talk right now. I was still pretty drunk, very tired, and just woke up from one of the scariest nightmares of my life.

"Well, I'd like to know why you screamed like someone came in here and ripping your guts out?" His eyebrows furrowed.

I sighed, "You really want to know? Why? Because I am so trustworthy that you have to get over your trust issues just to care more about me than any other person in the group? Well, if you don't mind, just stop okay? I don't want to see your stupid face right now so just leave me alone, please. Nothing's wrong, totally normal. I'm having a happy day."

He looked incredulous. "I want to know, Bella, not because I car, because I understand. You went through some heavy shit, all of us did. I'm trying to just help everybody here. I didn't trust them enough because they didn't know what the hell was happening, and Alice got all her shit sown so that didn't matter. But you have lived on your own in this hell, and I figured you needed a shoulder to cry on. So excuse me for understanding what you're going through." Well how rude. I leaned up off the wall and looked at him smugly.

"You don't know half of the shit I'm going through right now. Yeah sure, I'm part of this thing too. But at least you didn't kill your own parents after they reunited in the street. At least you don't have scary ass nightmares of the same traumatizing moment for a whole year. At least you found other people to go through this with you. At least you weren't bitten by one of them and survived." Did I really just tell him that? Yeah, I was bitten, and survived. Most excruciating three days of my life. It's not the thing where a zombie bites you and you turn. It's only if you die while the infection is going through you, which takes three days to actually flow all through the bloodstream. It makes you sick with a mild flu for a few hours after the three days, but then you become immune to the infection after. But its three days of the experience of a zombie. No, I didn't eat brains or guts, but its worse. You are empty. You are brainless. You don't know what's happening to you until you feel a fire burn through your veins, and you are not in control of your body for three days straight. The only way you die during that is if you rip yourself apart, and when they smell the blood and come to you and finish you off. You die and come back as one of them. Luckily when this happened to me I was in a locked up gas station and one of them popped out from behind the counter. I shot it before it could kill me, but it bit me first.

His eyes went wide and he moved away from me. Finally, some alone time. But he didn't leave. Ugh. "I had a nightmare, end of story. Now can you leave me alone?" I kept looking at him, like I could make him go away because of the stares.

He came closer to me, and didn't move from the bed. "How?"

"What?"

"How did you survive?"

I groaned loudly, "Do I have to tell you now?"

"Yes."

"No!"

"Tell me now," he demanded softly.

"Your so… ugh fine. I got bit, three days of suffering, woke up from being nothing, ta-da! Still alive. Happy now?" I told him impatiently.

He was quiet for a moment. "So, what, are you like half zombie now? Are you going to eat us? Maybe you were right about not trusting you." Finally! This guy got a pinch of common sense in his brain after all.

"No, stupid. Keep in mind that you just admitted that you trusted me. You shouldn't, Mr. Issues. I don't know why you're so obsessed with trusting and caring about me. Anyway, I'm immune to the disease now, it's only logical. Haven't you learned that once you're exposed to a disease you are most likely immune to it now? Well, if I'm immune to the disease, I can't die because of it. And since it already runs in humans' veins, if I get shot and the zombification happens I won't be zombified but just come back alive. And when I was bitten I was kept from developing further, so I basically don't age. Since when the dead turned they were kept at the age they died. Get it?" He was so lost. I could see it in his face. "How do you lack all common sense known to man?"

He shrugged and leaned against the wall. I lay back on the bed, but Edward's legs were in the way for me to actually lie down. I kicked his legs off the bed, he almost fell, and stretched my legs straight across the bed. Somehow, his legs ended up on top of my shins and he was still leaning on the wall with his eyes closed.

"Can't you go to your own room?" I asked irritated.

He kept his position. "Nope. Because when you wake up I am getting more answers first thing in the morning."

"What the hell is wrong with you?" I asked as I lifted my legs, kicked his sides and forcefully plopped them on top of Edward's thighs. He winced in pain, then smiled.

"Apparently, I have trust issues," he said sarcastically.

I was annoyed at this point. His little joke was pretty funny, because I have a ridiculous sense of humor, but still I was annoyed by him. "I have way more than you do."

"I doubt that."

I sighed heavily, and closed my eyes. "I hate you so much right now, Idiot."

"The feeling's mutual."

He… is an idiot.

**_A/N:_**_ So I hope you guys understand how Bella survived the zombie bite. I tried to make it close to the vampire transformation as possible, cuz you know… it's a Twilight fanfiction. _

_Review, please!_

_Beep._


	8. Hangovers

Chapter 8: Hangovers

_A/N: So like, hey guys. I tried to make this chapter funny but I'm not really sure if I succeeded. Just give me some feedback, criticism, and all that, just to help me improve. Pretty useful information in this one too, so read if you want. :)_

_Beep._

I woke up with a pain in my neck, literally and figuratively. I was in a fetal position, like always, but this time there was something different about my cold metal bed and lumpy pillow. My hand was fisted around some kind of fabric, and the other was tangled in my hair. So I had another dream. At least I didn't scream this time. I blinked a few times from the bright light in my room. The first thing I was my hand in front of my face, and shirt fisted into it. I let go of the shirt and wiped my hand on my shorts. My eyes trailed up the now wrinkled shirt to find that my head was on the chest of the sleeping idiot himself. I panicked and shot up to stand, but Edward's hand was on my shoulder and I had to catch myself from falling face first on the metal bed. His eyes snapped open and he fell off the bed.

"What the hell happened?!" he yelled from the floor. He sat up and rubbed his eyes.

"Why are you in my freaking room? Why the hell were you sleeping on my bed?" I was so confused. I didn't know what was going on.

He raised his eyebrows. "Seriously? You don't remember anything from last night?"

"What happened last night?" My eyes widened, and I looked at him in disgust.

He sighed and rolled his eyes. "Nothing like that. You had six cans of beer, got drunk, passed out, woke up screaming, and told me about you getting bitten." He looked at me, expecting me to come to an understanding. I was so lost, that really happened yesterday?

Then I came to realization. "Whoa, hold back. Did you say that I told you I got bitten?" He nodded. "What else?"

"You told me that you can't die and stay this age forever."

"I did?" He nodded again. "While I was drunk?" He nodded once more. "And you believed me?" And he nodded again.

"So you trust a drunk girl telling you she gotten bitten by a zombie, but you can't trust anyone else? You have reached a new low, Mr. Issues." I placed my hands on my hips and muttered to myself about how much of an idiot he was.

"You also said you would tell me more about it." I turned my head to face him. He was still on the floor, legs laid out in front of him and arms crossed over his chest.

Quiet and slow footsteps came from the hall, and a tiny body came into view at the doorway. "Why… are there people yelling in the middle of the night?" Alice asked irritably. "My head is aching, and I'd like to get some sleep if you don't mind." She was rubbing her eyes, and she appeared as though if she was a 7 year old girl waking up from a nap. When she opened her eyes and saw me, they immediately shot to Edward, then back to me. "What happened here?" I was confused at first, then I remembered my hair was a mess and Edward was still in the room.

"Oh no, Alice! That is not what happened!" I yelled. She winced and rubbed her temples. "Sorry."

"Then what did happen?" I looked to Edward, who seemed to know exactly what happened last night.

He explained. "Bella passed out her, and she screamed so I came to see what happened. She had a bad dream and I fell asleep in here. The end." Well, at least it wasn't a total lie, but I had to tell her what I heard word for word.

"And also, apparently I told him about the time I got-"

"Why is everyone screaming?" Rosalie appeared next to Alice, with a similar expression. "How are you not hung over, Bella?"

I honestly didn't know either. Isn't that what was supposed to happen though? I just shrugged, "Maybe I don't get hangovers, but I don't remember a thing that happened last night."

She looked at me curiously, and her eyes widened. And, similar to Alice, her head whipped back and forth from me to Edward. "Did you two-"

"No!" We yelled in unison.

"She passed out, she screamed, I fell asleep! End. Of. Story," he repeated more forcefully.

"Bella, what were you trying to say earlier?" Alice asked me. Even if she was hung over she was still observant.

I sighed, "I tried to say that-"

"Whoever is talking out of a microphone, I'm going to punch in the face if they don't stop."

"Welcome to the party, Emmett and Jasper! Please, join us in my already crowded room." Now I was getting annoyed.

Emmett and Jasper looked at me, and their eyes were squinting through the light to see. What's up with everybody and their hangovers? Emmett's jaw dropped to the floor, and Jasper followed suit. "Oh shit, Bella! Why is Edward in your room on the floor and why is your hair all messed up?" My head dropped back and I groaned in frustration. Why does everybody assume that the idiot and I just did it in my room last night?

"Dudes! I passed out, I woke up screaming, he came over and fell asleep in here, and I told him that I-" Emmett and Jasper recollected themselves, only to ask me stupid, overly protective questions.

"You passed out? How do you know he didn't try anything funny?" Emmett asked.

That was when my jaw fell to the floor and rolled away. "Are you implying that you think he tried to-"

"What the fu-"

"Wait, what is happening?"

"Bella! What were you going to say earlier?"

"Emmett, I think you are going overboard with the brotherly protectiveness over there." Oh my god. Everyone just needed to shut up. I grabbed the hair tie from my wrist and wrapped my hair up into a ponytail.

"If you don't shut up when I do this you're going to have to face an anxiety attack without my meds." Then the room was quiet. Finally.

"You have anxiety attacks?" Jasper asked.

"Yeah, apparently I do. Carlisle gave me some medication for when I get stressed, and only when I get stressed. So shut up. We got to sort-" I waved my hands around the room vaguely "-this shit out." Everyone nodded and scattered around the room and sat on the floor before me. It was like story time from kindergarten, except we aren't talking about appropriate subjects for children.

"Okay, so apparently I was drinking, correct?" Jasper, Emmett, and Rosalie cheered and winced from their headaches. I laughed at them and with them. Alice nodded slowly. "And I drank a lot?" More cheers, winces, and nods.

"Okay. Edward, explain the rest." I sat down and faced him, who was now sitting on my bed. He leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees.

"I carried to her room and she passed out on her bed. I walked to my room while you guys were still drinking and hours later I heard a really high pitched scream come from her room. She said she just had a nightmare, yelled at me for a few minutes, and then-"

He was cut off by a worried Rosalie. "Bella, you're okay right?" I knew how much she cared. She was like the big sister or another overly protective mother to me. I nodded simply. She stilled seemed wary, but let it go after a few moments.

I continued for Edward. "And then I told him vital information that everyone needs to know. And to add on to it, I'll tell you my plan and if you want to help me." They all got excited I should say, and the hangovers were almost forgotten. "Maybe we should get Carlisle and Esme too."

Just then, Esme popped out from behind the door, and was followed by Carlisle. "Okay, I'll begin." The best approach was just to come out and say it. "I was bitten by one of them. And before any of you start panicking and trying to kill me, it's not going to work." All eyes were on me, and I haven't felt this uncomfortable since I had to make a speech in front of an audience in high school. "Carlisle I think you're going to be interested in this topic." He entered the room and sat next to me on the floor, and was paying very close attention. I had noticed that everyone had come closer into a circle.

"So, I'm alive since it didn't kill me. Technically, you only turn into the dead if you are bitten and die during the transformation. But none of them killed me and I didn't kill myself during the three days it takes. So since I was exposed to the infection from the outside, I would be immune to it overall. Right?"

I turned to Carlisle as he processed what I just said. "That sounds about right, continue," He said after a moment's contemplation.

"And since when you die, you become one of them, and I can't, I wouldn't die. But it makes sense that I only die if I have serious head damage that could kill me, like a gunshot. I still feel pain, which has already been tested, I still bleed, I still attract the dead, and I'm still me. And since the dead don't develop or grow, I can't either. So I have to be 19 forever." I finished my explanation and looked around. They were looking at me like I had grown another head. "Any questions?"

"When did this happen?" Emmett asked me.

"A couple months after this started."

"What's it like?" Jasper asked quietly.

I looked at him. "The three days? It's like being ripped out of you. You can't do anything to stop it, but it's three days of a never-ending fire. It's like three days of not being you, and trying to take the fire out by tearing yourself apart. I don't remember what was happening around me. But all I remember was the pain inside and waking up perfectly fine, but in a puddle of my own blood. I had no scars except for one, but my clothes were shredded and I had to wear an oversized T-shirt for a week until I found an abandoned drug store with extra clothes in it." He looked surprised, and worried.

"May I see the scar, Bella?" Carlisle asked from next to me. I nodded, and pulled down my right sleeve of my tank top to reveal a large, faint bite mark on my shoulder. He poked and prodded at it for a while until he lifted the sleeve up again. "I'm guessing that it won't fade completely, since it has been like that for so long. But it would not be very noticeable after years." I nodded and smiled at him, and he returning the grateful smile.

Alice looked at me curiously. "So like, if you bite somebody, could they be like you too if they survived?"

I have never thought about it that way. "I don't know, I have never tried. I haven't even met another person until you guys came around. But I would guess so, yeah." She had a thoughtful look on her face, and then turned away from me.

"Now, would this shit be considered sorted?" I asked the crowd. Carlisle and Esme looked at me funny, but I just shook my head.

"The shit is sorted!" Everyone yelled at the same time.

I chuckled to myself. "Okay then, there is more of the story."

They all quieted down. "I have vowed to myself that after I get enough intelligence on this situation, I would have to find the person who started this since the end couldn't have caused itself. I would need to keep moving to find more, because I got nothing so far. I have only learned about the dead themselves, but not the asshole that started this." I remembered that I still had my list next to my bed. I launched myself from my seat on the floor to my bed. As I ran I noticed the idiot was still sitting there, so I pushed his head out of my way and my stomach hit his shoulder. And it hurt. As I lived through the sharp pain in my stomach, and was draped over the idiot's chest, and searched the wall for my list.

"What the hell?"

"You didn't move fast enough. I know you saw me running over there. You should have moved," I said to an annoyed idiot that tried to push me off of him. He kept fidgeting, and I couldn't find the list, so I just drew my knee up and it forcefully landed on his stomach. At least he stopped moving and I found my list again.

I pointed to it and moved off of Edward, who was now holding his stomach in pain. "Now you know how I feel," I told him as I rubbed my stomach where his shoulder hit. He didn't tell me off, so I passed it off as getting even. "That's my list. If you want to help me end this, feel free to join. A couple people already experienced one of my 'adventures'." They all stood up and read over my list. I noticed some of my tasks were completed, so I crossed them off with the pencil. Now the list was:

To-Do List:

4. Deal with Mr. Issues

6. Gather info on the living dead

7. Find the guy who did this

8. Kill him

I was surviving, and I was helping the others, I found more supplies, and trained. Mr. Issues was not dealt with and I told them I needed to find and kill the guy who started this hell.

Emmett looked at me surprised, but looked very irked. "Dude, this is nice that you get to live forever and stuff, but everything you just told me made my head ache more."

Rosalie didn't even get up off the floor, but instead she laid on it with her arm covering her face. "I don't even know what you're talking about anymore. I need sleep, 'cause I'm pretty sure I drank more than you did."

Alice was wide awake now, Edward was too uptight to actually drink anything, and Jasper was tired. "You guys are such wimps. I drank 6 beers, and I'm totally fine! I haven't even experienced a hangover yet."

Emmett, Rosalie, and Jasper groaned at my loud voice. "You haven't experienced a hangover? I can make that happen. With a frying pan. I need quiet," Emmett mumbled. He somehow made his way to Rosalie, and was lying next to her on the floor with his eyes closed.

I was surprised by his attitude towards me. And offended! Note the sarcasm. I walked him and kneeled next to his ear. "Is this quiet enough for you?!" I yelled, which caused his eyes to snap open and him to push my face away from his. I landed on my back and was holding my stomach from the ache of laughing uncontrollably. You have to admit, that was pretty funny.

Carlisle cleared his throat behind me, and I turned around innocently. "So, your plan is to gather as much information as you can and kill the person who started the end?"

I nodded, and looked around the room for the others' opinions on my plan. "Why don't we just call the person Bob for now, until we find out who he or she is?" I told them. Alice snickered from behind Jasper, who was sitting on my bed with a serious expression on his face.

"Jasper?" I asked called him cautiously.

He looked up to me sadly. "I think I may have something important to say," he said in a whisper. I watched his expressions change from guilt, to anger, to sadness. I sat down in front of him and looked at him seriously.

"What is it?"

He sighed heavily and moved his gaze from the floor to my face. "All I know is that the government had a secret project considering the hidden disease in the humans." My mouth was agape and I stared at Jasper. It was reasonable to have him know this, but I was still surprised.

He continued. "A few days after they told me that though, they told me I could go home." He finished with a look of disappointment in himself. Alice grabbed his hand and was reassuring him.

Carlisle had a pondering look on his face. "They told you this when it started?" Jasper nodded minutely. Carlisle sighed. "It could have been Dr. Aro Volturi. He had some secret project that he couldn't tell me about, and I haven't seen him since a few months before the apocalypse began."

I turned to Carlisle after the information sunk into my mind. "How do you know him?"

His eyes widened slightly and then he calmed down. "He was a friend of mine, but we rarely spoke to each other." I narrowed my eyes slightly, questioning his response in my mind.

"Even if you do find him, what are you going to do?" Emmett asked from the ground. I was pulled out of my thoughts on Carlisle and scooted over to sit closer to Emmett.

"Well, Emmett. I'm going to go to him, then shoot his head until it's a big mash of brains, bones, and blood. Do you understand? I know you are very hung over." I said the last part a bit sarcastically, and more bitter than I anticipated to.

"But it's the government, Bella. If they are still alive, they would have the highest security and will kill you," Jasper warned.

I turned to him. "I know they're still alive, they have to be. Like you said they are the government and a scientist there tested it." I looked from Jasper then to Emmett. "What are you trying to say?" Emmett slowly rose to sit up, and Jasper nodded at him.

Jasper sighed and looked at me once again. "What we're saying is, Bella, it wouldn't be the best idea to travel to WashingtonD.C. so you can get killed. We need you to be with us, and killing yourself in a suicidal mission for your revenge isn't a good way to keep you with us."

I crossed my arms, feeling like I was being scolded by my parents. I glared at him angrily, but he didn't back down. Jasper was serious about this. "Then what do you suggest I do? Just sit around waiting for this to end, watching each and every one of you die while I stay with this hell forever?"

Jasper glanced at Emmett, and then looked to me again. "Bella-"

I cut him off. "No, Jasper. I need to do this. It could be the only way to keep you alive and get my revenge." I took a deep breath and closed my eyes briefly. Once they were open, I saw Jasper and Emmett standing next to each other in front of me.

They were staring at me seriously and intently. "What?"

"You're not doing this alone, Bella," Emmett told me.

I gave him a cheerful smile. "I never said I was."

Alice and Rosalie joined them at their sides. "If they're going, we are too. Who knows what kind of trouble you'll get yourselves into," Rosalie said seriously, but with a bit of humor. Carlisle stepped forward from his stance on the side of my room, and Esme followed suit.

Carlisle spoke. "You are probably going to need parental supervision." I smiled at their support, and turned to the last person in the room.

Edward was pinching the bridge of his nose, and his eyes were shut. He finally sighed and looked up to me. "Nothing I say will convince you to not do this?"

I smiled innocently. "No way, Mr. Issues. You going to help us or stay in this hell hole until you die?" I placed my hands on my hips and waited for his decision. I became impatient after a while, and started to tap my bare foot and hum the _Jeopardy_ theme song. He glared at me, and then let out a long sigh.

"Fine. But only because I don't want to die yet." I smiled, and turned around to face the others. I was bombarded by hugs and laughs once I turned around.

Emmett piled us all into a group hug. "Don't worry, Bella. We got this."

"With eight of us, each with our own greatness, we will not be defeated!" Alice screamed. I was starting to trust in Alice's 'feelings'. Even if Emmett said he was getting weaker, he still packed a whole lot of muscle in those arms. I was being crushed under the weight, and so was everyone else. Emmett heard the short gasps for air, and immediately dropped us. I landed on my feet, but stumbled backwards when Alice stumbled into me. Jasper hooked his arm around Alice then reached for me. I missed his hand by that much and kept stumbling backwards. Something caught my back, and I thought it was the floor at first. But it lifted me back up and patted my head. I turned around and glared at Edward, but he just gave me a smug smile and chuckled quietly. My cheeks tinged pink for the first- and hopefully last- time in a year. He laughed a little more loudly and everyone turned to see me, almost as red as a tomato.

Stupid idiot. Made me blush and embarrassed me.

The day progressed quickly. We were making plans on how to get to WashingtonD.C. at lunch and then I was yawning in the late night when Emmett, Jasper, and Edward were playing some game. I was watching them with Alice and Rose, because I had nothing better to do. As I felt my eyes droop, I got up from my seat on the cold cement floor and walked towards my cold metal bed. My eyelids were heavy, and I was about to turn into my room when a hand wrapped around my mouth. My instinct tuned in and I tried to pry the hand off and flip the attacker, but the hand was strong. It wasn't dead either. I searched for the attacker's face, trying to find some way to plunge my finger into its eye socket, but I didn't punch or hit or kick the man in front of me. Instead I turned around and hugged him so tight I thought he would burst. A piece of my life, my heart, was just brought back to me.


	9. Reunion

Chapter 9: Reunion

Was this even real? Maybe it was the alcohol. Yes, it could possibly be the alcohol. Maybe when it wore off I would be hugging a metal pole. But I wanted it to be real; I never wanted to let him go ever again. He seemed different, taller maybe. He was pretty tall before. Wait, why am I thinking about this?

"Jacob," was all I could say. Shock and happiness had me speechless.

He hugged me to his chest and leaned his chin on my head, like he always did. "Hey, Bells." He always called me that, and his deep voice sounded comforting at this time. "How's it going?" I pulled back from the hug and cocked an eyebrow. He really just asked that.

He gave me a goofy smile. "Seriously Bells, I was kidding." I couldn't be away from Jake for long anymore, so I pulled his tall, muscled frame into a tight hug. His tan skin was glowing in the fluorescent light and his arms enveloped me in one of his signature hugs.

"I missed you," I told him.

"I missed you too. I thought you were dead." I hugged tighter to comfort him.

"I did too. I lost all hope when I tried to find you, but I'm glad you came back for me." Before this started, Jacob went on a road trip with his friends for a couple of weeks, since he was 22 and out of college. I still thought it was unfair that I didn't go. I liked his friends, Quil, Seth, and Embry. They were the only ones that liked me from the reservation. Realization hit me and my eyes widened as I pulled back from the hug again. "Where are the other guys?" He knew exactly what I meant, and sadness crept into his eyes. I felt like my eyes were going to pop out of my head.

He sighed. "Sam and Paul are gone." I never really liked them. They thought they were top dogs around the La Push reservation and basically bossed everyone around. I don't know why Jake was friends with them.

I had to be concerned for his sake. "They were killed?" I asked as comfortingly and sad as I could. Luckily, he didn't notice my cover-up, or ignored it.

He looked disappointed. "No, but I wish they did."

I looked at him, confused. He saw the question in my eyes. "They left us." Anger boiled up in me. What the hell? Who does that, leaving friends, let alone 20 year olds and a teenage boy, in an apocalypse?

I was almost over flooded with anger. "Why?" I asked through clenched teeth.

"Bells, don't worry about it, they probably got killed already." Much to my dismay, I let it go.

"Where is Seth? Embry? Quil?" I asked him. He smiled, flashing his white teeth.

"They're outside," he told me. I smiled widely and jumped up and down. I ran to my room and grabbed my leather jacket, and came out of the room putting on my boots. "Excited, much? How come you weren't jumping up and down when I came?"

I rolled my eyes. "Because you had the bright idea to scare the hell out of me." Once I had both of my boots on, I ran to the entrance door. Rosalie and Emmett were still there, doing God knows what. I yanked the door open to see Jacob's car in the middle of the field. I slowed down and turned to Jacob behind me.

He burst out laughing when he saw my expression. "What do you expect from the mechanic?" he said before he fell to the dirt floor. And as expected, the electric fence was shut down and Seth was climbing out of the car. "Bella!" I heard his voice call out to me. Quil and Embry jumped out of the car, and waved to me. All of them came running towards me, and I started laughing like a maniac. I don't know why, maybe out of sheer joy of seeing them again. They pulled me into a group hug, and I felt whole again. They were just mine and Jacob's best friends, but they were family too.

"Oh my god! I can't believe you guys are here! How did you survive?" I asked them all at once.

Quil laughed. "Same way everyone else did. We ran away."

"There is an 'everyone else'?" I asked.

Seth answered in his little, teenage boy way. "Well, duh. Some people were really prepared for this to happen. And we met some people on our way around the world." There plan was to travel around the United States and see all the big sights. And apparently Seth stowed away in the back to go with them.

I laughed at myself. "How did you guys even find me?" It was a rather important question. I didn't even know they were alive and next thing I know I'm hugging all of them in an abandoned insane asylum.

"I don't think it's normal to see a Forks Chief of Police car in Arizona, with an electric fence running," Jacob said as if it was the most obvious reason in the world. It kind of was.

I broke away from the suffocating hug and waved for them to come inside, like it was some kind of dinner party. They followed me into the building, and I saw a shocked Rosa and Emmett lying on the floor, thankfully with clothes on.

"Who are they?" Rosalie asked, pulling herself up. Emmett got up as well, still speechless. Jacob walked up next to me while Quil and Embry stayed behind. Seth waved to the two on the floor, and they both looked pretty shocked and slowly waved back.

I stifled my laughter and spoke. "Jacob, that's Emmett and Rosalie. Emmett and Rosalie, this is Jacob, Quil, Embry, and Seth," I told them, pointing out who they were. 'Hey' and 'nice to meet you' were passed around by all of them, and then it was silent.

"So, Jacob," Emmett said, "How do you know Bella?" I burst into laughter. Emmett was interrogating Jacob, like the big brother he was born to be. Seth was laughing too, because he understood what Jacob and I went through. Rosalie left the room very quickly, and a few minutes of laughter later, Carlisle and Esme were in the room with Rose. Following them were Jasper, Alice, and Edward. Great. Now I had to explain everything very elaborately for the idiot to understand. Always jumping to conclusions, that guy.

Carlisle and Esme walked forward to Jake and the guys. They introduced themselves as Jasper and Alice came forward. Jasper gave a casual greeting instead of the normal, boring handshakes and Alice straight out hugged them all. It was like she knew them already, like they were long lost friends. The freaking idiot didn't even say hi. It was like when he met me for the first time, maybe he'll just shoot all of them in the arm as a welcome gift.

"Jacob, you still didn't answer my question," Emmett said with his eyes narrowed.

"Emmett!" Esme scolded sternly. She was a nice person and all, but when you do something impolite or just plain rude, you have released the momma bear. She was already shooting daggers with her eyes at Edward.

Emmett held his hands up in surrender. "Hey, I'm just being the big brother for my favorite… sister over there." He was lucky he caught himself, especially with Rose there. But Alice looked pretty down though.

Jacob laughed. "I'm afraid that part is already taken." Then he punched me playfully on the arm. I poked him repeatedly in the arm until a full out poke fight started.

"Alright, alright! Bella, please explain," Carlisle's voice called out. I poked Jake one more time and mouthed 'I won' victoriously to his defeated face as I turned to Carlisle. I saw Edward from the corner of my eye, and he was now paying close attention to our conversation.

I began. "Well, Jacob is my brother. Technically half brother, but we grew up together. I don't know the whole story, but the gist is his dad, my mom, and then my mom, my dad. It's very complicated."

"Well, what about Seth, Quinn, and Jerry?" Alice asked. I chuckled quietly, and turned to see Embry and Quil roll their eyes.

"It's Quil and Embry, Alice," I told her.

She looked embarrassed and turned to the two. "Sorry."

"It's fine," they both said.

She turned back to face me and I continued the story. "Seth is our cousin and he has a sister named Leah, and their family is Jacob's aunt's family. Quil is Jacob's best friend and his second cousin from his mom's side. Embry is Jacob's half brother since he could be part of another family or our family but no one really knows, which would make him one fourth of my brother if he's Jacob's half brother." I registered what I just said in my mind, and nodded to make sure it was the correct information. Everyone looked shocked, except for Jacob, who was nodding in approval.

Emmett looked lost. "So, how do you know Embry could possibly be your, or the other family's, half brother?"

Embry answered for me. "It's this hereditary genetic thing, I guess. And my family apparently does not have that gene, but I do." Emmett nodded slowly, processing the information in his mind.

"I'm guessing you aren't good at science," Embry observed. Emmett shook his head.

"What is this hereditary gene?" Carlisle asked. I looked at Jake and Embry. Both shook their heads.

I found that Carlisle was curious as to what the gene was. Too bad it was a La Push Indian secret. "We can't tell you. It's one of those Indian sacred secret things." The gene was a pretty supernatural thing, even considered supernatural in a zombie apocalypse. Jake, Quil, Embry, and Seth can summon their ancestors for assistance in life. It's pretty cool, since their ancestors show themselves as wolves Jacob told me. But they only come in contact when they get really angry, or when evil is around. Very useful at this time.

Carlisle nodded in understanding. "Well, you must be tired. Bella, you know where to go." I nodded and wished goodnight to everyone. Jake and the others followed me into the hall.

"You can pick any room you want. You just can't close the doors," I told them as we walked down the hall. Quil was the first to break apart from out group and into a random room. Seth was next to leave. Embry took the room next to Seth's and left me and Jacob to return to ours. I was about to walk into my room and say goodnight when Jake grabbed me by the arm. I turned around and saw his serious face. "Do you think we should tell them?" he asked me warily.

I thought for a moment. "Well, it could be useful, Jake. Especially when we are going to WashingtonD.C."

"What?"

"We're going to D.C. to confront the government. They are the ones that started this, from what I was told."

He looked at me as if I just told him to go outside dressed in a meat suit and barbeque sauce. "No way, Bella! I'm not letting you do that! It's too dangerous!" I rolled my eyes.

"I'll be perfectly fine. I lived through this on my own, and I'm pretty sure with eleven other people it will be easy to get there."

He let out a laugh. "To get there, yeah. But how about when the government surrounds us with guns and zombies that'll eat our brains out?"

I crossed my arms. "You clearly haven't gotten to know us yet." He just got here, so what did I expect?

He grabbed the sides of my arms tightly. "Bells, I just got you back. I'm not going to lose you again. You and me against the world, right?" It was cliché, but the statement was true for us. It was me and him, in the middle of two different worlds on our own for most of our lives.

I sighed. "Right. But I have to- I need to do this Jake. They killed my dad and Mom. And I won't let it go." I looked away from his face and to a random spot on the wall.

"Charlie's dead?" I nodded my head and made my expression stoic. "Mom too?" I nodded again. He pulled me into a bear hug and I hugged him back. "I'm sorry, Bells."

"It's fine, but that's why I need this. If you're not going with us, then I'll leave you here to fend for yourselves." I couldn't hide my smile. I would leave him behind if I could though, and Jake just knew how serious I was.

"Why do you have to be so stubborn?" he asked, defeated.

I chuckled quite evilly to myself. "It's just part of my personality, and you love me that way," I told him.

He laughed and pulled away from the hug. "It's good to have you back, little sister."

I began to walk into my room. "It's good to see your face again, big brother." And I fell asleep, now somewhat content with part of my family with me again.


	10. Brothers and Sisters

Chapter 10: Brothers and Sisters

Training had to start all over because Jake and the others didn't know how to do anything. Alice, Jasper, and Emmett helped me and assumed their positions. Alice was excited to be a teacher again, and she made the big guys work extra hard. Like, really, Seth was only 17 and already had a six-pack. I had the happy training position to teach them about guns. Jake was clueless. He shot the gun, and didn't even hit the empty can. I doubled over in laughter.

"Hey, don't judge me. You may have had training with guns with your dad, I didn't have any with mine," he said jokingly, and somewhat offended.

I calmed down. "It's just nice to know that I am better than you on at least one thing."

He laughed once. "Trust me Bells, you are better at more than one subject than me."

I eyed him skeptically. "Name one."

"Now you're fishing for compliments, Bells?" he asked jokingly. I punched his arm as he thought. "Drawing."

I placed my hands on my hips. "That's the best you can do? I already know you suck at drawing. Your best Picasso project was a stick figure with its body parts scattered. So it was basically lines and a circle."

He rolled his eyes. "Oh, ha ha, very funny. I got a B- on that project and like I said, don't judge." He paused again. "Common sense."

I was silent for a while. "I'll accept that. Thanks for making me feel like less of a loser, brother."

He wrapped me up in a bear hug. "You are not a loser, Bells. You're just not as cool as me." I burst into laughter and maneuvered out of the hug.

"Hey! Where are you going?" As soon as the words left his mouth I ran across the room. I was lifted off of the ground seconds after, and was being crushed by the hands of my own brother. "I won't let go Bells! I'll never let go!" he declared like he was in _Titanic _the movie.

"The second you said that, I had lost all respect for you," I told him between breaths. He loosened his grip. But I was only handed off to another extremely burly man and into another bone-crushing hug.

"Emmett, I need to breathe too, you know." He laughed loudly.

"If your biological brother gets a hug, then the other brother from another mother gets one too." How ironic. Emmett was from a totally different mother, and Jacob and I were from the same mother, which explained our relationship perfectly. Emmett finally put me down, and then I was hugged by another brother. Jasper.

"I wanted to join the party too," he said. I chuckled and hugged him back.

"At least your hugs won't suffocate me to death." Another pair of arms wrapped around my waist. There was Alice. I was wondering why she hadn't hugged me earlier.

"Group hug!" she yelled. I laughed louder and wriggled myself around to hug as many people as I could at one time. Rosalie made her way in front of me and hugged all three of us from there. Jacob came around behind me and Emmett was behind Rose. The hug kept building with Quil, then Embry, and then Seth last.

"Love you guys!" I yelled as I tried to poke my head to the surface for air. I was stuck in the middle of the hug, and it was worse than being crushed Jake or Emmett. Everyone 'awwwed' and laughed at my statement, and there were other little 'love you too' declarations going around too. It was a nice moment, until it was ruined.

"I thought you guys were training," the voice said from the hallway. Everyone stopped laughing and was breaking apart little by little.

Once Alice was released, she turned to Edward and scowled. "You know, we can have a little fun too. It isn't all just business. Don't be such a buzz kill, Edward. Have some fun for once!" She threw her hands up and ran back to Jasper. Mr. Issues rolled his eyes, and I crossed my arms.

"We don't have a lot of time for this. We need to focus on survival," he stated.

Rosalie spoke then. "If we focus on survival and nothing else, we will have no reason to live. We can't waste time anymore. Alice is right, you need to lighten up." She popped out her hip and crossed her arms.

He let out a laugh. "Well hey, I wasn't the one who proposed we'd go to D.C. I'm not putting all this responsibility on everyone else's shoulders. Obviously I'm not the only one being a buzz kill." Are you serious? Are you freaking kidding me?

"So what are you saying? All of this is my fault? You being an absolute ass is because I want to avenge my own father? At least I'm trying to lighten up the mood. At least I'm trying to keep my hopes up, alright? I don't know why you just love to judge me on everything I do!" What the hell was wrong with this guy? Why was it only me he loved to pick a bone with?

Jake stepped toward me. "Bells, I'm sure-"

"No. I'm sick of him trying to make me look like the bad guy because of his trust issues and stuck up attitude!" I turned to Edward. "If you have a problem with me, why can't you just leave me the hell alone?"

"Bella, I'm sure he didn't mean it like that," Rosalie said as she pulled me back. I scowled at the idiot, as he looked shocked and tried to look cocky at the same time. It was an idiotic expression.

Alice placed a hand on my shoulder. "We don't have to deal with him now. He will be less of an ass as time goes." I took a deep breath and nodded. "Edward, I think you should go for now." The idiot laughed once, and turned around to walk away. She turned to Jasper and Emmett. "Do you mind hanging with Edward for a while?"

They looked at each other, then back at Alice. "Nope," they told us simultaneously as they walked passed us. "Hey, Eddie boy! Wait for us!" Emmett yelled after Edward.

I walked to Jake. Seth slung his arm over my shoulder. "Wow, Bella. Who knew you could have that much fire power? You really have changed."

I laughed. "You don't even know."

**_A/N:_**_ I know it's kind of short, but I didn't have too much time to write a lot. Sorry. Review please!_

_Boop._


	11. The DS Games

Chapter 11: The DS Games

**_A/N:_**_ Okay so this chapter is going to be really short because I promised every Sunday! I had a lot of stuff I needed to do this weekend and didn't have a chance to write. For those reading A Love That Lasts Forever, I won't update 'till next Sunday, the next chapter for that is going to have a lot of stuff probably soo…_

Emmett came running over to me with an excited expression on his face. I looked at him suspiciously. "What now, Emmett?"

Just then, Jacob came in with the same smile. He looked at Emmett and nodded. "Bells, I think it's time to have a challenge that you haven't practiced in years." I put the knife I was playing with back in its pocket.

I let the curiosity get the best of me. "Well, what is it?" I asked them.

Emmett stepped up. "Well, you know the DS's I got?"

I crossed my arms and turned to Jacob. "Are you seriously challenging me in video games?" He nodded. He was a fanatic for those, and eventually got me addicted when I was 12. "Oh, come on! You know I can kick your butt at Super Mario Bros. Your hands are too big for the DS anyway," I challenged.

He raised his eyebrows. "Well excuse me! But a challenge is what is needed to prove your little theory."

"Fine, Emmett where are they?" He burst out of the room and came back in seconds with three boxes. He hurriedly sat on the floor and opened the boxes. All of them were the same color- blue- so thankfully no arguments over that. He quickly set them up at once and got us started.

We all sat in a triangle shape on the floor facing each other. Emmett spoke. "Whoever gets to the flag in the fastest time wins," he stated. We got ready for his signal to begin, and the suspense was building. I peered over my screen to check for cheaters, since Jake was known to be one, and saw the other two pairs of eyes looking quite mischievously at me. "Go!"

I started the level and breezed through the easiest course. There were chuckles and funny sounds I have never heard flood my room. I was nearing the flag, it was in Mario's line of sight when- "Noooooo!" And my Mario was tragically killed by a Goomba in his way.

I punched Emmett in the arm. "What the hell, Emmett? I died!"

His face was sullen. "So did I."

I scowled. "Of course you did," I mumbled.

Jake was bursting with laughter next to me. "Oh, don't be such a lousy winner," I said to him.

He calmed down from his sudden outburst "Oh, I didn't win. I died way before you guys did, but pretended I was still playing. Your right, Bella. My hands are too big for this little DS."


	12. Truce Kind Of

Chapter 12: Truce… Kind Of

I called for a meeting first thing in the morning. We needed to get moving soon. Once everyone was in the center room and comfortable, I spoke. "Okay, so we need to start packing the stuff into mine and Jake's car in order to get to Washington D.C alive. If anyone doesn't mind, I can make everyone in charge of something." They gave me no signs of protest, except for one. And sure as hell I knew exactly who it was.

"Who made you leader of the group?" the Idiot mumbled. He thought no one would hear him, but everyone did.

"Well what would you do if someone killed off most of your family?" Rose said, with obvious venom dripping in her voice.

Edward turned to her. "I would keep the people with me alive by not risking all of them for my own purposes."

Rose threw her arms up and looked at him angrily. "We all have something to fight for Edward. Unlike you, we want to do something about it and not sit around letting the world crumble around us." She huffed out a breath and crossed her arms over her chest. "How do you manage to piss off every girl here?"

"Not just the girls," Jacob mumbled.

Emmett chuckled. "Just the girls more, one of the many downsides of PMS." The boys began laughing.

Alice glared holes into Emmett. "You don't even know Emmett. Do you know how it feels to have-"

I interrupted before further explanation. "We'll talk about this later, but we need to start packing." They nodded and let me continue. "Alice and Jasper, you can handle the weapons, right?"

"Of course," Jasper told me. I nodded and he stood up, reached for Alice's hand, and they were off.

"Emmett, Jake, Quil, and Embry, can you handle the boxes of food and water, please?"

Jake appeared next to me and hugged me sideways. "Of course, little sister." He kissed my forehead and left with the rest. The little group began to playfully hit each other and mess around. Maybe I shouldn't have put them with food.

Whatever. I began to speak again. "Um, Rose, Esme and I can get the clothes, Carlisle, Edward, and Seth can… support where help is needed." Rose and Esme nodded joyfully, but the boys groaned. Oh, they were picky and wanted specific jobs, huh? I blew a piece of my hair out of my face. "Fine, Seth, supervise Jake and them. Carlisle can help Esme and us, Edward can help Alice and Jasper. Happy now?" They nodded joyfully and spread out.

Esme, Carlisle, Rosalie and I grabbed an extra box each from food we already ate and headed to our rooms first. Once we had packed our stuff, we met in the center room again with overflowing boxes. That was only half of the clothes we needed to pack.

"How are we going to get all this in two small cars?" Esme questioned.

A light bulb went off in my brain. "You said you left your Jeep in the desert?" they nodded silently. "It's only about an hour away. I can drive someone over there, fill it with gas, and we can use that car as well." They processed it, and after moments they all agreed. I clapped my hands together. "Well, who wants to go with me?" They fell silent. "Nobody?" I feigned hurt.

Esme looked to Carlisle, and nodded before turning to me. "Bella, I think it would be best if Edward went with you, sweetheart." Surprise and refusal mixed in me.

"No! I'm not going to spend one hour with that idiot, and alone!" I was exasperated.

Carlisle spoke up. "Honestly Bella, if there are conflicts in our group, we are not going to able to survive long." He was right, I guess. It could tear us apart from the inside. Carlisle sounded like a shrink from the Himalayas right now.

There was a war fighting itself in my brain. _God Bella, it's either the group's survival or your conflicts. Don't be selfish!_ "Ugh, fine. I'll take him with me. Where are the keys?" I said reluctantly.

Rose looked at me apologetically. "They're with Emmett. Good luck." Great, now they are wishing me luck. Way to make me feel better.

I dragged my feet to where Emmett was and held out my hand in front of him. My head was bowed down, so I couldn't see his expression when I walked up. "Give me the keys to your Jeep," I demanded. His little chuckle fest ended.

"Why?"

"I'm getting it so we don't have to use mine as a clown car."

"Is anyone going with you?"

I groaned loudly in reluctance. "The freakin' idiot has to go with me."

"Why?" he asked. I could hear him trying to hold back laughs.

"Because Esme told me that I need to make peace for the group." I felt something being dropped into my hand.

"Good luck." The laughs finally burst out.

Without looking up, I thrust my fist forward. I hit something hard. "Ow! That was my food sack!" I snorted and laughed.

"Food sack?" I asked while gasping for breath.

He laughed humorlessly. "At least I got your mood up. And yes, because that is where my food is stored for winter." Yeah, Emmett could have secretly been a bear trapped in a man's body. A kid bear.

I walked away and tried to keep my balance while laughing. "Have fun, Bells," Jacob said behind me.

"Yeah, sure."

I walked around trying to find Alice or Jasper. I finally saw them sitting on the ground, sorting through the weapons and such. Edward had his head turned away from me, so I walked up behind him and poked his head. He turned around. "What?"

"Come on, let's go," I stated simply.

"Where?"

I sighed impatiently. "To Disneyland," I said sarcastically, "You have to come with me to get the Jeep."

He looked confused. "Why?"

My patience had run out, and I grabbed his bicep and started to pull backwards. He wouldn't budge. "Man, why are you so heavy?"

He got up then. "Why do I have to go get the Jeep with you? Can't Emmett do it?"

I stopped pulling his arm and looked up at him innocently. "You don't want to spend time with Bella?" I blinked a few times and jutted my lower lip out.

He ran a hand through his mess of hair and shrugged. What was that supposed to mean? I made a straight face. "Well, too bad. You are forced to go. Apparently Esme thinks we need some 'bonding time'," I said with air quotes.

"Fine, let's go," he said before motioning me to walk before him. He said something to Alice, but I could only hear muffled giggles. I was already in the car, engine running and a gallon of gas in the trunk when Edward exited the building. Jasper followed to open the gate. He opened the passenger door, got in, and slammed the door shut.

"Jeez, what took you so long?" I asked jokingly and irritably.

He rubbed his hands over his face. "Too many people asking questions," was all he said. I let it slide and drove off when the gate was finally open. Nothing had surrounded the building, surprisingly.

It was silent for what felt like forever. I looked at the clock on the radio and realized we've only been driving ten minutes. And then I realized… I needed music. "Can you get the CD thingy in the glove compartment?" I asked Edward.

"CD thingy?" he asked as he popped open the glove compartment.

"Yeah, that CD holder, whatever." I was bouncing in anticipation. I haven't listened to my music in a while, but the awkward silence called it for desperate measures. He took it out of the compartment and zipped open the bag. He pulled out a random CD and gave it to me. I immediately put it in, not knowing which one it was and turned on the radio. The music started playing in the background and I was happy again.

Edward looked at me with a raised eyebrow. "System of a Down? Really? How long have you had this CD?"

I let out a humorless laugh. "They actually send good messages and symbolism in their music. And I was a quirky kid; I didn't listen to Katy Perry or Justin Believer or whatever."

He rolled his eyes. "Okay, one, it's Justin Bieber, and two, I'm not judging."

"I'm surprised you know his name."

"I, for one, was a kid in the know," he said, as if proud of his high school reputation. I was kind of irked by the statement, but shooed the feeling away.

Well, I tried to. "And now you are the one with the trust issues," I mumbled, hopefully quiet enough.

"I do not have issues. Why does everyone think I have issues?" He crossed his arms and huffed out a breath.

My grip tightened around the steering wheel. "Because of that. Your attitude seems to get on everyone's nerves."

"Maybe it just gets on your nerves more because it's not only me who has issues."

I took a deep breath to calm myself down. "I know I have issues too. But jeez, at least I don't take it out on everyone and isolate myself."

"Yeah, I'm the only victim."

"Is that why you can't trust me? Because your attitude causes my problems?"

He sighed. "It's not that I don't trust you, Bella. I have known the others for years, and you just popped in…" he trailed off like he didn't know what to say next.

I breathed out heavily between my lips. "I get it. You just want to protect the people you've known. But it doesn't give you the right to be an ass to me," I told him as softly as I could. And maybe I was just being an ass too.

"Look, I'm sorry. I kind of feel better when things go as planned. No changes, or interferences."

I scoffed. "That does not help you in this situation."

"That's why I'm trying." I had no idea what he meant. Was he trying to accept that I'm part of the group too? Or trying to fix his issues? I didn't bug him about it anymore, and for while it was silent.

"Why are we listening to a song about pulling tapeworms out of asses?" Edward blurted out.

I tried to hold in my laugh. "If you couldn't recognize, or just wasn't listening to me, it's symbolism."

"Of what?" He sounded so shocked. His mind was so straightforward, it irked me.

"Technically, it's talking about how media is putting images in our minds for us, so forth and so on."

"That's deep," was all he said before returning into the awkward silence. What he said next had me stuttering. "So are we okay?"

"In what?" I asked once I pulled myself together.

He paused. "You know, do we have a truce?"

I thought for a while. None of us did anything bad, necessarily. He just shot me in the arm and I beat his sorry ass. Okay, so we were pretty horrible to each other. "Yeah, I guess so." He had a faint smile on his lips, and the awkwardness disappeared with our feud.

The CD played once around all of the songs when we finally found the Jeep. Turns out they weren't that far from where I set up camp when we met. I jumped out of the car and stretched my muscles. Arizona heat and a long drive didn't really mix for me. I turned around and caught Edward staring at something.

"What is it?"

He averted his eyes to me from… where ever he was looking. "Nothing."

I narrowed my eyes. "If something's up, just tell me."

"It's nothing. Just lost in thought, I guess."

I nodded and popped the trunk. He grabbed the gasoline and filled the Jeep's tank. From there, we separated and drove alone. I got time to think to myself, which was not a great thing for me. I turned up the music, loud enough that I didn't notice the roars of hunger surrounding me.

**_A/N:_**_ Sorry the chapter is so late. I didn't have enough time to write this weekend and I didn't want to do crappy, butthole homework, excuse my language. I'll make it up to you! I will redeem myself!_

_P.S. If you guys don't know, there is a poll on my profile- I think- and you can vote on which story I can finish first. Please, for the love of all cookies, vote! The stories are: A Love That Lasts Forever, The Apocalypse, and The Pirate's Life For Me._

_P.P.S. Review, please! With cherries and whipped cream with chocolate sauce on top! _


	13. Rushing Through

Chapter 13: Rushing Through

The car drifted to a stop in the dirt. Once the puff of dust had settled around me, I could clearly see the hundreds of the walking dead surrounding the gates to the asylum. I haven't even noticed we were that close. _Come on Bella, stay focused. Keep the fun times to a minimum. _They started closing in around the car, dragging their lifeless bodies to try and open the metal can I was in. I silently cursed to myself as I revved the engine angrily. I'd kill all of these dumbasses if I had the time. I didn't know where Edward had gone, and I didn't care at the moment. I just needed to get to the others. The car sped through the crowded bodies, hitting anything in its way. The blood splatters were displayed over my windshield, as if a reminder that this car is amazing. No wonder cops cruise around in it all the time. Bloodthirsty snarls protested against the engine of the attacking car.

I found my way to the front of the gates, and was surprised at the site in front of me. They were climbing the gates. Who the hell turned off the electricity? How did they learn how to climb? What the hell?!

I needed to get out of the car. Opening the door would result in death. I couldn't open the windows, again, death. Even if I was bitten already, I wasn't taking the chance. They could still tear me to pieces. So there was only one option. The car pushed through the hundreds left of the dead, finding a passage to the gates. Once I found it, I revved the engine. The car jolted forward and burst through the gates. Then, I was able to open the window. I stopped the car to maneuver out of the window and climb to the top of my car.

"Bella, what the hell are you doing?" I didn't hear anything else after my gun went off and the dead started dropping like flies. As fast as I could, I shot the ones nearest to me and the ones flooding in through the now broken gates. Okay, so not the best of my plans, but it was the best I could think of. A shot was fired behind me, and I lost focus for a split second to see Rosalie fighting her way to me. I turned back around and saw the Jeep drive its way through the bodies to the building. Smart. For the idiot, very smart.

I had to yell over the gunshots and growls to talk to Rosalie. She had found her way up to the roof of the car with me and make a clear path along the way. "Where is everyone else?"

She shot twice before speaking. "They saw the Jeep, so Alice, Esme, Carlisle and Seth are helping pack the rest of the stuff in there. The others will be out soon. I just thought you needed help first."

I kept my concentration, not taking my eyes off of my targets. "Thanks, I've had better plans than this, you know."

She laughed. "Yes, of course. We_ are_ going to be on our way to kill a bunch of government assholes, after all."

"I'm glad you're looking forward to it." They were gaining on us. One even got on the roof and I had to kick it off into the sea of decaying bodies. Everything was going fine, but we just had to wait for what felt like forever. I saw a flash of the familiar camouflage suit zip past all of the grabbing, clawing hands. Finally.

I started to complain to myself, which was apparently audible. "Hey, at least I showed up," he told me.

I finally got sick of this. "You know what," I hopped off of the roof, ignoring the protests. I pushed and punched and kicked my way through the stupid dead dummies, not caring anymore. There goes one of my mood swings again. "Why the hell does this always happen to us? And it's always when we are doing something important! Can't the world give me a break?!" They were gaining behind me, following for the hot blood that flowed through my body. Bloodthirsty assholes.

I heard the bullets still being shot but the sounds were getting louder as Rose and Jasper tried to catch up with me. With my anger, I was already speeding to the building. But I needed to let my anger out on something. I killed as many of the living dead as I could on my way to the doors, just plowing through the crowds as I went. No reason for hesitation. I kept tripping on the already lifeless bodies, which was making the journey longer. No matter how many the three of us put down, they were still coming. This time in bigger numbers. What was happening? I haven't seen more than a hundred of them in one group before, why now? I had my suspicions but kept them to myself. For now.

I was tired by the time I got to the doors. Bursting in with my hands on my knees, I stood at the doorway panting while Jasper slammed the door and Rose ran in. Warm, familiar arms wrapped around my shoulders and pulled me up. "Jeez, Bella! You could've got yourself killed!" I now realize Jake hasn't seen my changes in the lonely year. He'll have to figure it out.

"How did you know what I was doing?" I asked sort of jokingly and defensively.

He chuckled as he sauntered me to the boxes of supplies. "I saw you on the car when the door opened. Do you think I'm blind?"

"No, but your height is a great advantage." My breathing slowed and I stood up straight. "Where's Edward and the others?"

The door burst open then. A big, burly Emmett came running in and pushing everyone out the door. "Come on! Let's get this show on the road!" I could tell everyone was surprised at the sudden burst, and Emmett was very impatient at the time. "Not time. Must move!" I followed his instructions and began to walk fast and out the door.

The Jeep was right in front of me, and my car was still in the distance. From where I was standing, it looked as if the dead were almost all motionless. From past knowledge I knew others would be attracted by the noise and the scent. I automatically ran to my car, pushing away the ones that were trying to get to me, and noticed the backseat was packed with boxes of everything. I already know who packed it, and I felt thankful and annoyed at the gesture. I could take care of myself, thank you very much. Jacob split from the small group, probably to find his car. Most left for the Jeep, and I was at my cruiser by then. I could be alone on the car ride away from her, finally just a little relaxation. Don't get me wrong, I love the group. But sometimes I just need a break from, well, everything. They keys were still in, and I shut and locked the doors. I didn't move for a while, just sat in shock of what happened. There were so many, we were driven out of our own refuge and sent into mild panic. And there were so many questions needed to be answered.

The dirt stirred in the distance when I looked out the windshield. It was time to go. Emmett and Jacob's cars peeled out of the front of the asylum, ramming into some of the dead along the way. I revved the engine and quickly followed behind them. We would stop when it was clear to figure out our game plan. I guess the trip to D.C. started earlier than expected.

**_A/N:_**_ It's a sucky ending, I know. Just leave a review and tell me what you think. Please! Smiles to all you beautiful people!_

_Beep._


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